
Class F ^ I 3 



Book_^ Ma 



J 



THE CRADLE 



OF THE 



CONFEDERACY; 



6-^ ^ 



OR, THE TIMES OF 



t 



TROUP, QUITMAN AND yANCEy. 



A Sketch of Soitthwestern Political History 

FROM the Formation of the Federal 

Government to A. D. 1861. 



By JOSEPH HODGSON, 

OF MOBILE. 



MALIM INCiUIETAM LIBERTATEM, QUAM QUIETUM SERVJTIUM. 



PoWU: 



PRINTED AT THE REGISTER PUBLISHING OPFICE 






•02. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by Joseph 
Hodgson, in tlie Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States 
for the Southern District of Alabama. 



TO 

Hon. John Foi\syth, 
of mobile, 

LATE ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIART 
TO THE REPUBLIC OF MEXICO, 

I DEDICATE 

THIS HISTORICAL SKETCH, 

IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE 

PATRIOTIC SERVICES OF HIMSELF AND OF HIS DISTINGUISHED FATHER, 

WHOSE LIVES HAVE ILLUSTRATED 

THE 

PATRIOTISM OF SOUTHERN STATESMANSHIP, 

AND THE 

DIGNITY OF SOUTHERN MANHOOD. 



PREFACE. 



Time has borne us so far from the men and events of the period which 
usliered in tlie fratricidal war of lS61-'5 that it is well for a new genera- 
tion to be taught the truth of Southern History. It is not amiss to review 
the causes which produced the late war, and by examining the more 
humble and minute incidents of local discussion and action, to arrive at 
a correct conclusion as to the motives of those who engaged in the for- 
mation of the Southern Confederacy. 

It will be seen from the following imperfect sketch that a majority of 
the people of the South were opposed to secession in 1850, and even in 
IStJO ; that the Unionists of the South were driven from their position 
afUir a protracted struggle, not so much by the advocates of disunion at 
tlie South as by the advocates of disunion at the North ; and that the 
great mass of Southern people were led into acceptance of the Ordinance 
of Secession under the belief that the remedy they thus sought against 
grievances, would be acquiesced in by the people of the Northern States 
and by the Federal Government. 

The author will not have had liislabor in vain, if he succeeds in saving 
from the wreclc of time, and in preserving in the more durable form of a 
book, many facts which throw liglit upon our local history, and which , 
after a few years, might otherwise be lost to memory. And if the facts 
here presented should aid in convincing the people of this Republic that 
the South- Western States were driven by Northern enemies, rather than 
by Southern leaders, into the act of secession, the author will rest satis- 
fied that he has contributed one important aid towards an obliteration 
of sectional misunderstanding, and towards a return of that fraternal 
feeling which sliould exist between peoples bound together by common 
language, laws, kindred, and comnaerce. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER ■ The City of Montgomery, Alabama— The Birthplace ol 

the Confederacy— Extent and Situation of the Original Confederacy— 
Her Resources and Population— Independent Spirit of the Slave- 
owner— Testimony of Edmund Burke— The Non-Slave-Owners— 
Traditions Inherited from Patrick Henry- Jealousy of States-Rights— 
The Immigration from Virginia— Displacement of the Muscogees— 
Growth in Population and Wealth— The Study of Oratory— Political 
Customs, Social Habits— General Quitman's Description of a South- 
ern Home— Etc., Etc., 

CHAPTER II Dipcovery and Settlement of the Southwest— Her- 
nando DeSoto— Marquette, Toliet, and DeSalle— Iberville. Bienville, 
and Sauvolle— The French in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana— 
The English Successors in Alabama and Mississippi — The Spaniards 
in the Gulf States— Oglethorpe and his Settlement of Georgia— Condi- 
tion of the Gulf Country at the Outbreak of the Revolution— Strength 
and Position of the Indian Tribes— Etc., Etc. 

CHAPTER. Ill— Growth of the Idea of Secession— Jealousy of the 
Commercial Against the Agricultural States— Navigation of the Mls- 
.sissippi— The Whiskey Rebellion— The Jay Treaty— Views of Distin- 
guished men— Frequent Threats and Hopes of Disunion— The Ijoulsi- 
ana Purchase— The East Fears the South and West— The Hartford 
Convention— The Resolutions of '98— Randolph's Reply to Patrick 
Henry— Etc., Etc. 

CHAPTER IV Jurl-sdlctlon of the United States Over Indian Tribes 

—The Fee Simple of Lands Occupied by the Tribes— The Yazoo 
Frauds— The Decision in the Case of Fletcher vs. Peck— Indignation of 
the People of Georgia— Constitutional Questions Growing Out of that 
Decision— Etc., Etc. 

CHAPTER v.— Relation of the Union to the Indian Tribes— Relation 
of the State to the Tribes Within Its Limits— The Georgia Act of 
Cession— Non-Observance of the Contract on the Part of the United 
States— The Treaty- Making and Commerce-Regulating Power— Con- 
flicting Views as to Indian Rights— Practice of the Northern and 
Eastern States— The New Theory of Equality of Races—Etc, Etc. 

CHAPTER VI — The Treaty of Indian Springs- Murder of Mcintosh— 
General Gaines and Governor Troup— Threatened Collision of State 
and Federal Forces— The State Sustains Her Position- The Cherokee 
Nation— An Appeal to the Supreme Court— Its Writ of Error Disre- 
garded—The Question of Coercion— Etc., Etc. 



XIV 

CHAPTER VII.— South Carolina and the Tariflf— Continued Contest 
Between the Agricultural and Commercial States— Callioun and Nul- 
lification— The Force Bill and the Right of Coercion— Inconsistency 
of President Jackson— Calhoun's Victory— Webster Retires from the 
Battle— Real Causes for the Proclamation— Etc., Etc. 

CHAPTER VIII.— Controversy Between Alabama and the United 
States— Intrusion on the Creek Lauds— Killing of Owens— Message of 
Governor Gayle— Threats of Resistance to the Military— Resolutions 
of a Legislative Committee— Mission of Key to the State— Adjustment 
of the Difficulty—The Federal Government Compromises the Ques- 
tion—Etc, Etc. 

CHAPTER IX.— The Federal Party Reorganize upon the Slavery 
Question— Continued War upon the Agricultural States— Opinions of 
the Southern People as to Slavery— Tlie Missouri Compromise— The 
Slade Agitation— The Abolitionist, George Thompson— Views of 
England— Opinions of Jackson, Marcy, Clay, Everett and others— 

/Drawing of the Geographical Line— Etc., Etc. 
CHAPTER X.— Position of the South During the Van Buren and Har- 
rison Administration— Relation and Tenets of Parties from 1840 to 
1850 — More Territory for the South— New Threats of Division at the 
North— The Mexican War— Quitman and thePalmettoes— OfTer of the 
Mexican Crown to General Scott— Condition of a Mongrel Popula- 

/tion— Etc., Etc. 
CHAPTER XI Wm. L. Yancey and the Montgomery District— The 
Alabama Democratic Resolutions of 1848— General Cass and the 
States-Rights Party- The Nashville Convention and Defeat of Seces- 
sionists—The Compromise Measures of Clay— Triumph of the Union 
Party all Over the South— Defeat of Governors Seabrook and Quit- 
man— The Georgia Resolutions- Union Leaders and Sentiment in 
/ Alabama— Etc. , Etc. 

V CHAPTER XII— The Montgomery District— Contest of States- Rights 

and Union Men over Yancey— The Georgia Platform— Yancey Retires 
and Cochran Takes His Place— Report of the Southern Rights Associ- 
ation— Defeat of the Yancey Party— Scheme to Acquire Cuba— Lopez 
and Quitman— Federal Arrest of a Governor— Reorganization of Par- 
ties—The Southern Whigs— The Whig Convention at Baltimore- 
Reply of Scott and Pierce to the States-Rights Associations— Etc., Etc. 

^ CHAPTER XIII.— The Kansas-Nebraska Bill— Preparing for Battle 
over the Outpost— Sharpe Rifles— Emigrant Societies— Rise of the 
American Party— Fillmore and Buchanan in the Southwest— Political 
Elements of the Elections of 1856~Etc., Etc. 

Y CHAPTER XIV The Dred Scott Decision— Condition of Parties in 

1858— The Irrepressible Conflict— The John Brown Raid— Leagues of 
United Southerners— The Southern Commercial Convention— Debate 
Between Yancey and Pryor— Precipitating the Cotton States into 
Revolution- Etc., Etc, 

CHAPTER XV Instructions to Alabama Delegates— Action of the 

Alabama Legislature— Views of Forsyth, White and others— Meeting 
of the Charleston Convention- Yancey's Great Address— Withdrawal 
of Southern Delegates— Position of Political Parties— Yancey at Balti- 
more—He is offered the Vice-Presidency— Nomination of Breckin- 
ridge— Etc., Etc. 



J 



XV 

*^*'-*^^'''*^'' XVI,— The Canvass in Alabama— Assaults upon Yancey 
-Position of the Three Contestants- Yancey's Canvass of the West 
and North-His Arrival at Memphis-Reception at Knoxvi lie- Speech 
at Washington- At tempted Fusion in New York-Yancey at New 
York-His Speech in Faneuil Hall, at Lexington, and at New Or- 
leans-Return of Yancey and Visit of Douglas to Montgomery-Etc. 

CHAPTJEK XVII.-EIection of Lincoln— Reception of the News- 
Mass Meeting at Montgomery-Yancey Declares for Secession-The 
People Taught that Secession will be Peaceable— Co-operationists and 
Secessionists-The Crittenden Compromise-Its Rejection and De- 
feat—Etc, Etc. 

^^'■-^^'■"E^* XVm—Effect of Seward's Speech— The Vote for Delegates 
to the Secession Convention— Meeting of the Alabama Convention- 
Caucus at Washington-Excitement in the Convention-Parties 
Nearly Equally Divided-Refusal to Submit the Ordinance to the 
People- Yancey's Threatening Speech-Counter- Threats-Etc, Etc. 

•^MAPTEK XIX.— Adoption of the Ordinance of Secession— Popular 
Enthusiasm-Union of all Classes of the People-Assembling of the 
Southern Congress at Montgomery— Arrival of President Davis- 
Ratification by the Alabama Convention of the Confederate Consti- 
tution—Conclusion. 



T IT E 



Cradle of the Confeoemcy. 



CHA^PTER I. 



Tlie City of Movfpomerp. Alahama — The Birth place of the 
Confederacy — F.rfoit and Sitnation of the Oriainal 
Confederacy — JTer Reftources and Population — Inde- 
pendent Sjnrit of the Slave- Oivner — Testimony of 
Fjdmnnd Bnrl-e — The Non Slave- Owners — Traditions 
Inherited from ratriclc Henry — Jealousy of State 
Rights — The Tmmif/ration from Vlryinia — Displace- 
ment of the Mnscofjees — Growth in Popnlatinn and 
Wealth — The Study of Oratory — Political Customs — 
Social ffahits — General Quitman's Description of a 
Southern Home—Etc.^ Etc., Etc. 



" Tf slavery was an evil, it bred the best race of men and women the 
world ever saw." 

Horatio Seymottr. 

"For this mneh is certain: That if institutions are to be judged by 
thfir results in the compofiition of the councils of the Union, the slave- 
holders are much more ably represented than the simple freemen " 
* * * "In the progress of this affair, the distinctive character of the 
inhabitants of the several great divisions of the Union have been shown 
more in relief tlian perhaps in any national transaction since the estab- 
lishment of the Constitution. It Is perhaps accidental tliat the combi- 
nation of talent and influence has been the greatest on the slave side." 

John Quincy Adams. 

" He is a gentleman of the South ; they hnve no property but land ; 
and I am told his territory was Immense. * * * It is not unlikely he 
may have lost his estates now; but that makes no difference to me. I 
shall treat him. and all Southern gentlemen, as our fathers treated the 
emigrant nobility of France." 

Disraeli, In Lothair. 

It was on the eventful evening of Saturday, February 
16th, 1861, that an immense crowd of human beings, 
of all classes, sexes and colors, thronged the streets of 
the little city of Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, 



2 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY, 

and congregated in front of the Exchange Hotel, which 
overlooks the broad mart. The occasion for this im- 
mense assemblage, whose shouts of exultation rent the 
air, was the arrival in that city of the President elect 
of the Confederate States — Jefferson Davis. 

In obedience to the call of the people who had assem- 
l)led to greet him, Mr. Davis appeared upon the balcony 
of the hotel, accompanied by many distinguished men, 
whose names had long been eminent in the annals of 
the Union, and who were yet to become even more dis- 
tinguished in the history of the ill-fated Confederacy, 

Prominent among them was William Lowndes Yancey. 
Introducing Mr. Davis to the assembled multitude, the 
voice of the greatest orator ever produced by the South 
rung out like the notes of a clarion — '^The hour and the 
man have met .'" 

The place of this remarkable meeting, Montgomery, 
was then a small city of twelve thousand inhabitants, 
standing at the navigable head of the Alabama river, 
and in the heart of that fertile band of rolling and wooded 
prairies which stretches itself, averaging a width of 
seventy-fi\'e miles, from the waters of the Savannah to 
those of the Mississippi. 

Here is the great cotton belt of the Gulf States. 
Here is grown the larger proportion of the cotton 
production of the United States. Here it was that broad 
plantations covered the fairest land under the sky; where 
great wealth accumulated, and where was developed that 
highest and best pride of humanity which accompanies 
the possession of vast landed estates. 

The beautiful city of Montgomery was the brightest 
of gems upon the belt of this fertile and happy region. 
Midway between the Gulf and the Tennessee, between 



THE CRADLE OF THE COKFEDERACY. 3 

the Savannah and the Mississippi, she held the key to 
the Gulf States. North of her, and extending to the 
Tennessee, was a rolling country, rich in metallic ores, 
with fertile valleys, salubrious climate, and health-giving 
waters. South of her, the broad cotton lands rolled 
down to meet the pine forests of the coast, whose wealth 
of timber was fringed by groves of magnolia and orange. 

It was the habit of many who were proud of the 
extent of the Union to deride the Confederacy at its 
earliest organization, when it embraced only the first 
seven seceding States, because it was so small a fraction 
of the United States. There was no occasion for derision 
or contempt. The country of which Montgomery was 
the immedinte centre, covered an area as large as 
England and France combined. 

The entire country of which she was then the capital, 
contained more than half a million square miles, or more 
than three hundred and thirty-six millions of acres. It 
embraced some of the most fertile and productive land 
to be found in either hemisphere, situated in a mild and 
healthful climate. It lay circling half around a vast 
inland sea, which covers a surface nearly as extensive as 
the Mediterranean, and draining river basins unparalleled 
in size and variety of products by any of those of the 
Eastern hemisphere. 

This territory, of Avhich Montgomery was the capital, 
is more extensive than the combined areas of France, 
Great Britain, Prussia, Bavaria, Belgium, and the Neth- 
erlands — countries which contain more than one hundred 
and five millions of inhabitants. It produces every 
commodity which is adapted to the soil and climate of 
these populous European nations; and yields, besides, 
the valuable staples — cotton, sugar and rice. Its 



4 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

mountains are rich with coal and iron, which lie close 
to the sea, and are easy of manipulation. At a lower 
price than elsewhere it is able to grow all the cotton 
needed for the world. Its production of rice and sugar 
is limited only by the amount of labor. Its timber for 
ship and house building is the most valuable in the 
world. It has every variety of climate, from the 
Appalachian range of mountains to the semi-tropical 
groves of Mobile and New Orleans. The health of this 
vast imperial domain stands as well in the medical 
reports as that of any other section of the Union. 

Such was the site of the city in which was established 
the government of the Confederate States. The people 
who joined on the evening of February 16, 18(31, in 
joyful greetings to the President elect were no less dis- 
tinguished than the soil which gave them birth. They 
were of the highest type of the Anglo-Saxon. 

Here and there throughout this broad dominion 
remain undiluted remnants of the French and Spanish 
families who first colonized the Gulf Coast, and other 
Franco-Latin vestiges of that great wave of adventurists 
which the empire of Charles V sent forth to the Indies 
and to the Gulf of Mexico; but these feeble oil-shoots 
of South Europe were long since overshadowed by the 
great Anglo-Saxon immigration which planted the 
banner of King George, under Oglethorpe, upon the 
banks of the Savannah; which swept down from south- 
western Virginia along the waters of the Tennessee; and 
which followed the course of the Ohio and the Mississippi 
to the bluffs of Vicksburci; and Natchez. 

It has been remarked that the American descendants 
of the English Saxons have acquired, as a race, a 
variety of their own : that in complexion, expression 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDBRA.OY. 5 

and physique they now diifer perceptibly from the 
parent stock. Although this may be true of the people 
of the more northern States, it cannot be held true of 
the people of the South. In the latter region, and 
especially in those sections where were large landed 
estates, the race of men has always preserved the highest 
characteristics of their English ancestry. 

Whether or not the institution of African slavery 
aided in the development of this highest order of Saxon 
manhood, has been a disputed question ; but we have 
on record that philosophic testimony of Edmund Burke, 
which, during the civil war in America, arrested general 
attention. That great statesman, seeking to dissipate 
the hope that less resistance to the encroachments of 
Great Britain would be found in the Southern colonies 
than in the Northern, uttered this language : 

" There is, however, a circumstance attending the 
" [Southern] colonies, which, in my opinion, counterbal- 
" ances this dilference, and makes the spirit of liberty 
"still more high and haughty than in those to the 
" Northward. It is, that in Virginia and the Carolinas 
" they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this is 
■■* the case in any part of the world, those who are free 
" are by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. 
" Freedom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind 
" of rank and privilege. Not seeing there that freedom, 
" as in countries where it is a common blessing, and as 
" broad and genial as the au', may be united with much 
" abject toil, with great misery, with all the exterior of 
" servitude, liberty looks among them like something 
" that is more noble and liberal. I do not meiin, sir, to 
" commend the peculiar morality of this sentiment, which 
" has at least as much pride as vii'tue in it ; but I cannot 



6 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERAOY. 

"alter the nature of man. The fact is so; and these 
" people of the Southern colonies are much more strongly, 
" and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to 
"^ liberty than those to the Northward. Such were all 
" the ancient commonwealths ; such were our Gothic 
" ancestors ; such in our days were the Poles ; and such 
" will be all masters of slaves, who are not slaves them- 
" selves. In such a people the haughtiness of domination 
" combines with the spirit of freedom, fortifies it, and 
" renders it invincible." 

Throughout the cotton belt, where, at the blast of a 
horn, the master could be surrounded by a regiment of 
slaves, the spirit of freedom and domination in the 
descendants of the Cavaliers and Huguenots was such 
as to develop the frame, and inflame and intensify the 
pride of the individual to the highest extent known to 
the human race. Such Herculean deeds of valor as 
were drawn forth in the terrible conflict which shook the 
North American continent testified to the sagacity of 
the English philosopher, and to the manhood of the 
Southern Saxons. 

Nor was this spirit of personal dignity and inde- 
pendence confined to the actual slave-owners. The 
non slave- owners, who had been crowded by superior 
wealth or energy from the rich cretaceous lands of the 
interior, and from tlie e(iually rich alluvium of the 
rivers, and who had taken up more humljle abodes 
among the hills of north Ala])ama, oi- in the pine 
forests of the coast, felt an eciual piide in that distinc- 
tion of race which made the ^'axon a mastei'. With 
such jealousy did they cherish the spirit of [)ersonal 
liberty and local independence, that th(i policy which 
looked to the extremest lic^ense of State-rights always 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 7 

found among them the most enthusiastic, the most 
numerous, and the most persistent supporters. They 
received no pecuniary advantage from African slavery, 
and were so careless as to its continuance that at no 
time were they willing to enter into a war for separation 
of the States to secure its firmer establishment ; but 
they perceived with that subtle instinct which belongs 
to the average Saxon, that the overthrow of African 
slavery would leave in the heart of their State a host of 
citizens foreign to their ideas, antagonistic to their labor, 
and cherishing under the influence of designing leaders 
the fretful jealousy of race — a jealousy which the history 
of mankind had shown to be the precursor of violent 
and constant hostility. 

These non slave-holders were not, as has been sup- 
posed, the dupes or the deluded followers of the slave- 
owner. They were so numerous as to control the politics 
of the Sfcxte. They gave political leaders to the slave- 
owners. From their midst sprung men like Patrick 
Henry, Andrew Jackson, Calhoun and Clay. They gave 
warriors of renown, at whose head stands Stonewall 
Jackson. They furnished the rank and file of armies, 
and concluded with glorious honor a contest entered into 
with unanimity, and prosecuted it with unparalleled 
devotion, gallantry and endurance. 

The ancestors of these men had served in the Revo- 
lutionary war, and had won the independence of the 
colonies: an independence which they were so careful 
not to surrender to a new, overshadowing, government 
that their fears of the proposed Constitution of the 
United States could only be allayed by the then clearly 
defined and clearly understood reservations of the 
annexed amendments. 



8 THE CBA.DLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Patrick Henry, the eloquent commoner who infused 
this spirit into the masses of Southern people, perceived 
the doubtful constructions which ambitious men might 
place upon the Federal powers. He opposed the adop- 
tion of the Constitution. Believing that in a national 
government the liberties of the people would be gradu- 
ally lost, he saw that the only hope of the multitude of 
Anglo-Saxon people who were destined to fill this conti- 
nent was in a confederated republic of independent 
States. Hence, he asked in the Virginia convention, 
" Why is it that the preamble of the Constitution is 
" made to read '■we^ the people,^ instead of ^we^ the 
" States V " " If," he declared, " the States be not the 
" agents of this compact, it must be one great, consoli- 
" dated, national government of the people of all the 
" States." He protested against the language of the 
preamble as containing the germ of absolutism. Begin- 
ning with this solemn protest, the wisdom of which has 
been justified by the events of the succeeding eighty 
years, the Virginia patriot raised a warning voice which 
appears to us of to-day the inspiration of prophecy. 
The checks and balances of the three co-ordinate 
departments of the Federal Government appeared to 
him as specious, imaginary balances — " rope-dancing, 
'' chain-rattling, ridiculous ideal checks and contriv- 
" ances," which could be annulled by the power of Con- 
gress to throttle the judiciary, or by the power of the 
President at the head of a standing army to throttle 
States, Congress and Courts. "Can he not at the head 
'*• his army beat down every opposition ? Away with 
" your President, we shall have a king : the army will 
" salute him monarch ; your militi;i will leave you, and 
"assist in making him king, and fight against you; 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 9 

"and what have you to oppose this force?" The State 
legislatures would be shorn of their consequence, being 
forbidden to legislate upon any but the most trivial 
affairs. They are not to touch private contracts, and 
"cannot be trusted with dealing out justice between 
" man and man." A stamp act was authorized. Federal 
collectors could seize the papers and property of citizens, 
and call in the army to enforce the most dangerous and 
alarming practices. The Federal judiciary could over- 
shadow the States, oppress the citizen by onerous costs, 
summon juries from a great distance, and, in the hands 
of bad men, sustained by the Federal Executive, could 
destroy the last vestige of popular government. The 
State was at the mercy of a Federal judge — the creature 
of the Federal Executive. 

The fears of Patrick Henry were those of the people. 
They were only quieted by those amendments which 
were supposed to studiously guard against the dangers 
which he had porti-ayed so eloquently. 

From this orator of the Revolution the people of the 
South inherited a deadly opposition to a national con- 
solidated government, a fear of concentrated Federal 
power, and an earnest resolve to resist to the last the 
abrogation of State-rights. The slave-holder and the 
non slave-holder alike were inflamed by this traditionary 
antagonism; and when Lincoln declared after his election 
to the presidency that the relation of a State to the 
Federal Government was simply the relation of a county 
to a State; and when Seward, a little later, declared that 
old things had passed away and all things had become 
new, the Anglo-Saxons of the Gulfj with no special 
reference to African slavery, except as an incident in 
the impending conflict, arose as one man, from the 



10 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

mountains to the sea, and, in the language of the last 
battle-order of General Gordon, lowered at Appainattox 
the Cross of St. Andrews only amid the huzzas of victory 
and before a routed foe. As an organization, they were 
conquered; as individuals, they were still freemen. This 
spirit of personal independence and pride of race could 
not be crushed by the most appalling catastrophe that 
ever befell a people. 

The central and most fertile lands of the Gulf States 
received at Augusta, Georgia, the tide of inunigration 
from Virginia and the Carolinas, which followed swiftly 
upon the steps of the departing Muscogees. This noble 
tribe of Indians (better known as Creek Indians, from 
the abundance of water courses upon which they lived), 
in the year 1721 occupied that entire country fi'om the 
Savannah to the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers, which 
afterwards became the garden spots of Georgia and 
Alabama. In 1733 General Oglethorpe met the 
Muscogees on the blulf of Yamacraw, on the Savannah. 
They agreed in formal council to yield to the colonists 
all the lands below tide water between the Savannah 
and the Altamaha. Six years later, Oglethorpe again 
visited them on the Chattahoochee, and by a new treat}^ 
they acknowledged themselves subjects of Great Biitain; 
ceding to the English, with some reservations, the coast 
from the Savannah to the St. Johns as far into the 
interior as the tide flows. During the American Revo- 
lution the Creeks adhered to the British. After the 
coniilusion of peace the Georgians claimed, that by 
treaties concluded in 1783, 1785 and 1780, the Mus- 
cogees had ceded to Georgia a consideraljle part ol" their 
lands south and west of the Oconee. The Creeks, 
under their able leader, McGillivray, whose father was a 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 11 

Scotchman, denied the validity of these treaties, and, 
although his people had always been allies of the 
English against the Spaniards, they now entered into 
close relation with the Spanish government of Florida. 
They numbered GOOO warriors, and were well supplied 
with fire arms. In 1787 war broke out between them 
and the Georgians, and the colonists suffered severely. 
In 1789 they entered into negotiations with the United 
States, and acknowledged allegiance to the Federal 
Government; but soon after broke off negotiations, 
and renewed hostilities when they discovered that the 
commissioner did not propose to restore their lands. 
By the treaty of 179G the Creeks admitted the eastern 
boundary, as defined by the treaty of Hopewell in 
1756, "from Tugals river, thence a direct line to the 
•'top of Currohe mountain; thence to the head of the 
"south fork of the Oconee river." 

Between this eastern boundary, and the western 
boundary of Line creek in the county of Montgomery, 
Alabama, the Creeks cultivated their fertile lands in a 
rude way, and remained at peace eighteen years. But 
at the outbreak of the war of 1812 with Great Britain, 
a large portion of the nation — incited it is said by 
Tecumseh, and probably receiving encouragement from 
other quarters — took arms without the slightest provo- 
cation, and at first committed great ravages. They 
received a severe chastisement at the hands of General 
Jack.son, and in August, 1814, surrendered a large part 
of their best territory. In 1818 they made another 
large cession of lands, and in February, 1825, they 
ceded all their lands in Georgia. On March 2, 1832, 
the Creeks ceded to the United States all their lands 
east of the Mississippi. 



12 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

It was thus that during the first quarter of the present 
century the immigration from Virginia and the Carolinas, 
crossing the Savannah at Augusta, pushed before it the 
fated Muscogees, until finally by treaty and by battle 
driving the savages beyond the Mississippi, they spread 
the broad wave of civilization and industry over the 
entire Gulf States. 

This occupancy was not marked by the circumstances 
of frontier life. It met upon the west below and beyond 
Montgomery an old and refined society which had been 
planted by Iberville and Bienville, and whii-h hail 
received accessions from the fugitives of Waterloo. It 
brought with it the wealth, energy and enlightenment 
of half a century of industry upon the banks of the 
Savannah, the memories of the American Revolution, 
and the manly independence and honesty which had 
been engendered by the poHtical education of middle 
Georgia. 

Thirty years' use of the cotton gin had raised to 
wealth and respectability persons who before the intro- 
duction of Whitney's invention, had been depressed by 
poverty and sunk in idleness. Debts had been paid off. 
Slaves had been imported in great numbers under the 
clause of the Federal Constitution which forbid the 
discontinuance of the African slave trade until 1807. 
Capital had increased. The sons of the planters liad 
Ijeen liberally educaied at Cambridge, New Haven, 
Litchfield, Princeton and Charlottesville. Lands had 
grown enormously in value, and railroads were even 
had in contemplation to convey to Savannah and 
Charleston the cotton bales of that broad belt which 
reached from the Savannah to the Mississippi. 

The parish of St. Paul, which wa-o afterwards known as 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 13 

the county of Richmond, and from which the county of 
Cokimbia was constructed, was one of the wealthiest in 
the State of Georgia. Its county seat, Augusta, was 
the centre of a very populous and prosperous com- 
munity. Among its eminent sons it numbered such 
men as Edward Tellkir, "William H. Oawford, John 
Forsyth, Richard Henry Wilde, William Cunmiing, 
the Holts, Longstreets, Glasscocks, the two Generals 
Twiggs (father and son), Abram Baldwin, Nicholas 
Ware, George Walton, John Milledge, Freeman Walker 
and Thomas W. Cobb. 

Within the limits of the present county of Columbia 
was Carmel academy, which was for some years con- 
ducted by the celebrated Dr. WadJell. At this academy 
John C. Calhoun, William. li. Crawford and Thomas W. 
Cobb were pupils. Here Calhoun, supported by the 
proceeds ol" his own labor alone, was prepared in two 
years for the junior class of Yale college. 

Immediately after the Revolution this region received 
a large accession of population from Virginia. The 
leader of this wave of inmiigration, George Mathews, 
a man of sterling worth, but of limited education, had 
been colonel of the 9 th regiment of Virginia troops 
ill the continental service. His knowledge of frontier 
lile recommended him to the notice of Gen. Washing- 
ton, and at the head of his regiment he distinguished 
himself at Germantown. He was high in favor with 
the army as a vigorous and undaunted officer. In 
1785 Col. Mathews purchased a tract of land on Broad 
river, and removed to it with his family. By his 
advice, Traviss Merriwether, Benj. Taliaferro, Peachy 
Gilmer and John Gilmer also emigmted fi'om Virg-inia 
to the same region. These famiUes became prosperous, 



14 THE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDEB ACY. 

rose to distinction, gave governors to Georgia, and were 
honored by having their names perpetuated in counties. 

Mathews was the principal man of all that section. His 
military reputation made him governor of Georgia one 
year after his settlement in the State. He had become 
personally known to the people some years before while 
serving under Gen. Greene. From 1785 to 1795 the 
lands upon Broad river were settled mainly by the friends 
and relatives of Mathews and those who first accom- 
panied him from Vir2;inia. The descendants of these 
Virginians followed the retiring Muscogees, and settled 
in the heart of the richest prairies between the Chatta- 
hoochee and Line creek in Alabama. 

This society of middle Georgia, born in the hills of 
Virginia and nurtured upon the banks of the Savannah, 
extended in full vigor to the fresher lands of central 
Alabama. 

The men of this region, from the beginning of 
the century to its fifth decade, were such as no country 
ever saw before; and such as, it may be feared, will 
perhaps never be seen again. The first settlers were 
comparatively rude and uncultivated. The eight years 
of Revolution had debarred an entire generation ft"om 
all education except that of the camp and the battle 
field. There was then no rapid road to wealth. Some- 
what later, however, the cotton gin added new value to 
agricultural labor, and began to bring gold into the 
hands of the planter. The log cabin soon gave way to ' 
the substantial framed house, or to the more pretentious 
country mansion surrounded by elegance and taste. 
The squad of slaves increased into companies and regi- 
ments; school houses and churches arose in every 



\ 
THE CRADL E OF THE CONFEDERACY. 15 

settlement, and the trading villages swelled into wealthy 
connnercial towns. 

The population was almost entirely agricultural. 
There were few mechanics, and but a small number 
engaged in commercial pursuits. The professions were 
not crowded. Although the sons of planters generally 
pursued legal studies, it was seldom with a view to 
active practice ; more generally it was to serve as an 
entrance to political life. 

Sir James Mackintosh, speaking of the English 
nobility as the most powerful order of men in Europe, 
suri'ounded by every circumstance which might seem 
likely to fill them with arrogance, and to teach them to 
scorn their inferiors, and which might naturally be 
supposed to extinguish enterprise and to lull every 
power of the understanding to sleep, has asked the 
question: " What has preserved their character? what 
"makes them capable of serving or adorning their 
" country as orators and poets, men of letters and men 
" of business, in equal proportion to the same number 
" of men in the commercial and professional pursuits of 
"life ?" The answer is: Where the ordinary incentives 
to action are withdrawn, a free constitution excites it by 
presenting political power as a new object of pursuit. 
By rendering that power in a great degree dependent 
on popular favor, it compels the highest to treat their 
fellow-creatures with decency and courtesy, and disposes 
the best of them to feel that inferiors in station may be 
superiors in worth, as they are equals in right. What 
is true of the English nobility, was true of the most 
opulent and well-born of the Southern planters. They 
looked to the people at large for preferment, and from - 
a nearer plane. The richest among them had been 



16 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDP^RACY. 

poor but recently, and the movst aristocratic in feeling 
could boast of no ancestry which antedated the Revo- 
lution in distinction. The only aristocracy which could 
maintain itself was one either of wealth or genius. But 
as wealth was an accident to which any one might 
attain, and as the honors of the Republic lay within 
the reach of the youth born in poverty equally with 
him who was born in opulence, it became essential that 
the men who sought the ear and favor of the people 
should cultivate all the graces and courtesies which are 
found among the political aspirants of England. Ora- 
tory was cultivated as the most effective means to reach 
the popular ear. Newspapers being rare, the rostrum 
became the source of political information, and a people 
who had ample leisure delighted to witness the contests 
of the intellectual gladiators. 

There" was no official dishonesty in those days. To 
be suspected even of selfishness in office was to be dis- 
carded from public favor. The voice of the people was 
supreme. No officer dared set himself above the wishes 
of his constituents, nor resist the power of public opinion. 
The man with clean hands was caressed and honored. 
The man with soiled hands sunk to obscurity, and died 
in shame. The peculiar election laws of Virginia had 
moulded a lofty public sentiment, and impressed upon 
her children in the other Southern States a purity of 
political morals which lives now only in tradition. The 
manner of voting was viva voce. The voter was a free- 
holder. On the day of election the candidates sat with 
the judges, and in turn harangued the multitude in 
elevated and courteous language. The free-holder in an 
open, frank and manly manner announced his prefer- 
ence. He had a choice, and he was brave enough to 



. THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 17 

let the world know it. There was no equivocation, 
double-dealing and shuffling. It was the voter's pride 
that he sustained great fimdamenbd principles, or 
honored men of great worth, or maintained the dignity 
of his State in the Union by elevating to representative 
positions the wisest and the best in the land. In the 
dignity and worth of his governor or representative in 
Congress he recognized his own importance. He blushed 
with shame at an unworthy representative. So strong 
had become the pride of the voter, and so firmly rooted 
had become this elevated view of statesmanship, that it 
remained steadfast long after the subdivision of property 
and the gradual extension of suffrage to the non-land- 
owner. This lofty sentiment accompanied the Virginian 
and Carolinian wherever he went. It was renewed and 
strengthened by the aristocratic tendency of African 
slavery. It made him the most independent of mankinrl. 
He was the patron of the politician and statesman, and 
not the recipient of governmental favors and bounty. 
He bore himself with all the majesty of the perfect 
freeman, dispensed a generous hospitality, and displayed 
a loftiness of soul which respected and alleviated honest 
misfortune. He was quick to rebuke an unworthy act, 
and to revenge the slightest afii'ont. He was haughty 
to the proud, kind to the unfortunate, gentle to the 
poor, stubborn in opinion, patient under affliction, and 
unostentatious in prosperity. He was a fair specimen 
of a class of men which could be developed only by 
great agricultural prosperity, under a system of laws 
which encouraged and compelled the highest exhibition 
of political candor and boldness. 

Although the generation which immediately followed 
the Revolution was comparatively rude and uncultivated, 



18 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

it possessed those splendid qualities of patriotism, pa- 
tience, and endurance Avhich invariably lay broad and 
deep the foundations of States. In the midst, and im- 
mediately under the shadow, of great events the human 
mind becomes more comprehensive in its grasp, and 
the human soul more enlarged in its aspirations, and 
more steadfast in its principles. Nothing impresses the 
mind more permanently with the glory of humanity 
than the exhibition of splendid acts of devotion occur- 
ring within its experience. The immortal deeds which 
shine out brilHantly from a patriotic war stir the heart 
of the beholder with an ambition to emulate such 
virtue, and a pride in being worthy to claim it as a her- 
itage. When the political causes which occasion war 
have been lost to memory in the mass of uncertain his- 
torical facts, the deeds of gallantry which emblazoned 
its annals will live fi'esh and green in the enthusiastic 
bosoms of succeeding generations. The fathers of the 
Revolution exhibited in then- struggle for freedom the 
most heroic qualities. The mothers forgot the feebleness 
of their sex and bore with fortitude the most appalling 
dangers, from the open foe, the secret enemy at theii" 
door, and from the merciless savage. 

In the CaroHnas and in Georgia the sufl'erings and 
misfortunes of the patriots were most intense. The 
army of Greene, the little bands of Marion and SUi»i- 
TER, struggled against fearful odds, and at times seemed 
to be struggHng against destiny itself Such patience, 
such endurance, was the cradle of a race of men of 
enlarged intellect and hon will. They were found in 
every settlement where the Continental soldier had 
hung up his musket. They carved an empire out of 
the forest ; they thrust the Indian backward towards 



THE CRADDLE OF THE CONFEERACY. 19 

the Pacific. They organized and conducted State and 
municipal governments which were models of simphc- 
ity, vigor and purity. There were but few books in 
their cabins; but the lives of. Washington and of Ma- 
rion, ])y Weems, were in the hand of nearly every 
child. The events described in these little books 
formed the character of the rising generation. It grew 
to be jealous of personal dignity and anxious for the 
security of municipal privileges. It chafed at the inter- 
ference of a Federal executive. It was suspicious of a 
government whose authority was not derived directly 
from themselves. Above all it yearned for military 
glory. All wars were popular with them ; and no pol- 
itician could win the popular applause more surely than 
by appeahng to the final arbitrament of arms. 

The succeeding generation, that which was born with 
the present century, inherited the manly qualities of 
their fathers. To these, prosperity added education, 
with its refining influences and its expansion of the 
grasp of intellect. With them society was simple and 
orderly. There was no dissipation, thriftlessness, no 
want. The thief and the beggar were rarely known. 

The slave which had escaped the club of the captor 
found a home where labor was accompanied with abun- 
dant food and clothing, and where the law and public 
opinion alike protected him from cruelty and oppres- 
sion. If it was a crime to have brought him from 
Africa, the crime did not rest with these planters. 
Under Oglethorpe, slavery had been prohibited in all 
Georgia, stretching fi-om the Savannah to the Missis- 
sippi, but the greed of merchants on the coast and of 
ship owners fi'om New England, abolished the prohibition 
and engrafted the traffic tor twenty yeai's, even on the 



20 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

face of the Federal Constitution. Was it better, in the 
development of mankind, that this race should have 
remained in Africa, free to live like the veriest beasts 
they slaughtered, or should have become useful as 
slaves, under an enlightened sky? In that day slavery 
was regarded as an evil — but so difficult of removal 
that no plan was ever seriously contemplated for its 
cure. It was many years later that the constant as- 
saults upon the slaveholder by citizens of distant States 
drove him in his pride and defiance to the proposition 
that slavery was a moral, political and social blessing. 
Compared with his situation in Africa, slavery was un- 
doubtedly a political, moral and social blessing to the 
slave. Whether it was such to the master will remain 
one of those vexed questions which will be answered 
according to the sentiments with which habit, educa- 
tion, prejudice and custom have clothed each one of us. 
Certain it is, that taking the slave-owning planters of 
that day as a body, there was nowhere under the broad 
sun a more moral race of men, with purer and more 
elevated social habits, or with more liberal and benign 
political institutions. 

Major General Quitman, a native of New York, 
wrote in 1 822, when but a youth, to his father, the fol- 
lowing description of Southern life : 

" Our bar is quartered at different country seats — 
" not boarding ; a Mississippi planter would be insulted 
." by such a proposition, but we are enjoying"^ the hospi- 
" talities that are oflered to us on all sides. The awful 
'' pestilence in the city brings out, in strong relief j the 
"peculiar virtues of these people. The mansions, of 
" the planters are thrown open to all comers and goers 
"free of charge. Whole families have fi'ee quarters 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 21 

" during the epidemic, and country wagons are sent 
*' daily to the verge of the smitten city with fowls, veg- 
" etables, &c., for gratuitous distribution to the poor. I 
" am now writing from one of these old mansions, and 
" I can give you no better notion of life at the South 
" than b}^ describing the routine of a day. The owner 
" is the widow of a Virginia gentleman of distinction — 
" a brave officer who died in the public service during 
" the last war wiih Great Britain. 

" She herself is a native of this vicinity — of Eng- 
" lish parents, settled here in Spanish times. She is 
" an intimate friend of my first Iriend, Mrs. G., and I 
" have been in the habit of visiting her house ever 
" since I came South. The whole aim of this excellent 
" lady seems to be to make others happy. I do not 
" believe she ever thinks of herself She is growing 
" old, but her parlors are constantly thronged with the 
" young and gay, attracted by her cheerful and never- 
" failing kindness. There are two large families from 
" the city staying here ; and every day come ten or a 
" dozen transient guests. Mint juleps in the morning. 
" are sent to our rooms, and then follows a delightftil 
" breakfast in the open veranda. We hunt, ride, fish, 
" pay morning visits, play chess, read or lounge until 
" dinner, which is served at 2 p. m., in great variety, 
" and most delicately cooked in what is here called 
" Creole style — very rich, and many made or mixed 
" dishes. In two hours afterwards everybody, white 
*' and black, has disappeared. The whole household is 
"asleep— the s^<?.s^« of the Italians. The ladies retire 
" to their apartments, and the gentlemen on sofas, set- 
" tees, hammocks, and often gipsy fashion, on the gi-ass 
" under the spreading oaks. Here, too, in fine weather 



22 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

"the tea-table is always set before sunset; and then 
" until bedtime we stroll, sing, play whist or croquet. 
**It is an indolent, yet charming life, and one quits 
" thinking and takes to dreaming. 

" This excellent lady is not rich, merely independ- 
" ent ; but by thrifty housewifely and a good dairy and 
" garden she contrives to dispense the most liberal hos- 
"' pitality. Her slaves appear to be in a manner free, 
"yet are obedient and polite, and the farm is well 
" worked. With all her gayety of disposition and fond- 
" ness for the young she is truly pious ; and in her own 
" apartments every night she has family prayers with 
" her slaves, one or more of them being often called 
" upon to sing and pray. When a minister visits the 
" house, which happens very frequently, prayers, night 
" and morning, are always said ; and on these occasions 
" the whole household and the guests assemble in the 
'^parlor; chairs are provided for the servants. They 
" are married by a clergyman of their own color ; and 
" a sumptuous supper is always prepared. On public 
, " holidays they have dinners equal to an Ohio barba- 
" cue ; and Christmas, for a week or ten days, is a pro- 
" tracted festival for the blacks. They are a happy, 
" careless, unreflecting, good-natured race, who, left to 
" themselves, would degenerate into drones or brutes ; 
" but subjected to wholesome restraint and stimulus be- 
'' come the best and most contented of laborers. They 
" are strongly attached to ' old massa ' and ' old missus,' 
" but their devotion to ' young massa ' and ' young 
"missus' amounts to enthusiasm. They have great 
" family pride, and are the most arrant coxcombs and 
"aristocrats in the world. At a wedding I witnessed 
' ' here last Saturday evening, where some one hundred 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 23 

" and fifty negroes were assembled — many being in- 
" vited guests — 1 heard a number of them addressed as 
" governors, generals, judges and doctors (the titles of 
" their masters), and a spruce, tiglit-set darkey, who 
" waited on me in town, was called ' Major Quitman.' 
"The 'colored ladies' are invariably Miss Joneses, 
" Miss Smiths, or some such title. They are exceed- 
" ingly pompous and ceremonious, gloved and highly 
" perfumed. The ' gentlemen ' sport canes, ruffles and 
"jewelry ; wear boots and spurs ; affect crape on their 
" hats, and carry huge cigars. The belles wear gaudy 
" colors, ' tote ' their fans with the air of Spanish seno- 
" ritas, and never stir out, though black as the ace of 
" spades, without their parasols. 

" In short, these ' niggers,' as you call them, are the 
" happiest people I have ever seen, and some of them, 
" in form, features and movements, are real sultanas. So 
" far from being fed on ' salted cotton seed,' as we used 
"to believe in Ohio, they are oily, sleek, bountifully 
" fed, well clothed, well taken care of, and one hears 
" them at all times whistling and singing cheerily at 
" their work. They have an extraordinary facihty for 
" sleeping. A negro is a great night-walker. He will, 
" after laboring all day in the burning sun, walk ten 
" miles to a frolic, or to see his Dinah, and be at home 
"and at his work by daylight the next morning. This 
" would knock up a white man or an Indian. But a 
" negro will sleep during the day — sleep at his work — 
" sleep on the carriage box, sleep standing up ; and I 
" have often seen them sitting bare-headed in the sun, 
" on a high rail fence, sleeping as securely as though 
"lying in a bed. They never lose their equipoise; 
" and will carry their cotton baskets or their water ves- 



M THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" sels, filled to the brim, poised on their heads, walking 
" carelessly and at a rapid rate, without spilling a drop. 
" The very weight of such burdens would crush a white 
''man's brains into apoplexy. 

" Compared with the ague-smitten and sulFering 
" settlers that you and I have seen in Ohio, or the sickly 
" and starved operatives we read of in factories and in 
" mines, these Southern slaves are indeed to be envied. 
" They are treated with great humanity and kindness." 

This is a true picture of the home and surroundings 
of the Southern planter of that day, drawn by an intel- 
ligent spectator of Northern birth and education. Such 
were the homes of Middle Georgia and of Middle Ala- 
bama. If the character of the people was not marked 
with that quiet refinement, that gentle grace and per- 
fect command over every movement of person and 
every expression of countenance and speech which be- 
longed to the older communities of the coast cities, and 
which can only be acquired by constant contact with 
the highly educated, it was at least marked with an 
unselfishness and a candor, a vigor of mind and a pu- 
rity of thought and action, which could often shame and 
put to fliyht the cold, ctilculating spirit of the fashion- 
able world. It was not an aristocracy of education and 
hereditary wealth, but a nobility of nature. The child 
obtains the imprint of character from the mother. The 
daughters of that day received a home education. 
Their constitutions were robust ; their health vigorous- 
They were devoted to the claims of home, husband and 
children. They were affectionate, industrious, proud 
and pious. Their world was the home circle; and their 
occupation was in the broad field of domestic duties. 
They taught their sons and daughters the simple purity 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 25 

of their own lives — the former to look upon woman 
with the most chivalric tenderness, and the latter to 
cultivate that delicacy of sentiment and action which 
takes alarm at the first approach of whatever is coarse 
and vulgar. The man of mean conduct was despised 
and discarded. The man of cruelty was shunned. The 
drunkard, the liar, the libertine was ostracised. The 
silly and the froward woman was rebuked, and she who 
overstepped the bounds of maiden propriety lost caste 
forever. The sHghtest whisper against a woman's char- 
acter, if true, blasted a life and caused the heads of a 
family to hang in shame for generations ; if false, the 
life of the accuser paid the forfeit for an accusation so 
revolting to the sentiment of the domestic circle. 

Religion is the cement which holds together the 
constituent elements of society. The generation which 
immediately succeeded the Revolution lived in sparse 
settlements and was cut off from the word of God. It 
would seem that in the face of great dangers and ca- 
lamities the religious element would be strengthened, 
but strangely enough, during periods of war familiarity 
with death appears to rob the giim monarch of his ter- 
rors. The soldier falls with the triumphant huzza upon 
his lips and a smile of defiance mocking the pallor of 
the last adversary. He is buried with the honors of 
war ; a volley of musketry is fired over his grave, and 
his comrade, with a single tear for his memory, rushes 
in another hour to the arms of a Hke fate. With the 
generation which succeeded our war for independence 
that skepticism and infidehty which accompanied the 
rise and progress of the French Revolution, increased 
the indifference of its American sympathisers to mat- 
ters pertaining to the life beyond the grave. There was 



2G THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

still another reason for carelessness in religious affairs ; 
men high in authority and possessed of the affections 
of the people were known to entertain irrehgious opin- 
ions. Beside this, there was no immediate means by 
which such an unhealthy condition of society could be 
remedied. The Parish of St. Paul's was no more. The 
Anglican Church lost its power and popularity with the 
Revolution, and its Episcopal successor had not only to 
struggle against the prejudice which had atta.ched to 
the relation of its predecessor with the English govern- 
ment, but against the stronger prejudice which a rude 
and uncultivated people entertained against the ritual. 
The services were too complicated, the forms and cere- 
monies too cumbersome. The prayer-book appeared to 
them to require as much study as an Indian dialect. 

John Wesley had been sent by the Anglican Church 
as a missionary to Georgia, and the renowned White- 
field had followed him, but notwithstanding their labors, 
as late as 1769, there were but two churches in Georgia, 
and these were one hundred and fifty miles apart. 
Soon after the Revolution the Baptists obtained some 
foothold on Kiokee creek in Columbia county, where 
was established the first Baptist church in Georgia. 
The first Methodist society was formed in Augusta 
as late as 1799. It may be said that for twenty years, 
or one generation after the Revolution, there were no 
churches in Georgia. With the opening centuiy, how- 
ever, when the introduction of the cotton gin had in- 
creased the comforts, wealth and opportunities of the 
people, a new condition of religious affairs began. The 
labors of Wesley and Whitefielu had been seed sown 
in fruitful ground, destined after a long time, but finally, 
to bear abundant fruit. The Baptists and Methodists 



THE ORABLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 27 

were the missionaries of the Word. The simple prac- 
tices and fliith of these churches adapted themselves to 
the rude customs ot the early settlers. Devoid of 
show and ceremony, they appealed to the emotional 
nature of man. Woman is more religious than man, 
because her emotional nature is more delicately organ- 
ized. So an appeal to the emotions more readily cap- 
tivates an unlettered and simple people than one more 
highly educated. The humble ministers of God passed 
to and fi'o, holding divine services in the log school- 
houses, in the cottages, under the wide-spreading trees 
beside the cool springs. They inculcated those divine 
precepts which society recognizes, so soon as announced, 
as the corner-stone of its structure, the key-stone of its 
arch — to love one's neighbor, to Hve vh'tuously, to do 
no wrong. Here and there churches were erected, but 
churches no longer could contain the multitudes who 
crowded to listen to the men of God — men often of the 
most captivating eloquence, always of a zeal which if 
it could not arouse the attention by beauties of rhetoric 
and logic, wrought the heart into a frenzy by the elec- 
tricity of enthusiasm. To accommodate the multitudes 
camps were resorted to. Great arbors covered with 
brush, and under which were rough seats of logs and 
coarse boards, constituted the audience room. Often 
several preachers were occupied in exhorting different 
congregations at the same hour. From morning until 
midnight the groves resounded with prayer and song. 
The whole country assembled at these meetings. The 
tents witnessed the most profuse hospitality. In the 
intervals of service the families of the neighborhood 
mingled together, and as the conversation was miturally 
directed towards the events of the occasion, the con- 



28 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

duct and language of the people partook of a religious 
discretion and fervor. Amid such scenes were edu- 
cated the most exalted sentiments of human nature. 
From such a presence the impure of heart, the disturber 
of public peace, the man of lasciviousness and violence 
slunk abashed. 

The memory of revolutionary deeds excited this peo- 
ple to bravery ; their pohtical customs educated them 
to candor and honesty ; their free institutions inflamed 
their pride and independence ; but their camp-meetings 
did more than all else to make of them a peaceful, or- 
derly and virtuous society. 



CHiVI^TER II, 



Discovery and SeMlement of the Southwest — Hernando De- 
Soto— Marquette, Joliet and DeSalle — Iberville, Bien- 
ville and Sauvolle — The French in Alabama, Missis- 
sipjri and Louisiana — The English iSticcessors in Ala- 
bama and Mississippi — The Spaniards in the Gulf 
States— Oglethorpe and his Settlement of Georgia — 
Condition of the Gulf Country at the Outbreak of 
the Revolution — Strength and Position of the Indiari 
Tribes, itx'., cOc. 



" What a substratum for empire ! Compared with which the founda- 
tion of tlie Macedonian, the Roman and the Britisli sink into insignifi- 
cance. Some of our large States liave territory superior to the island of 
Great Britain, whilst the whole together are little inferior to Europe 
itself. Our independence will people this extent of country with free- 
men and will stimulate the innumerable inliabitants thereof, by every 
motive, to perfect the acts of government and to extend human happi- 
ness." 

David Kasisey. 

" The time will come when one hundred and fifty millions of people 
will be living in America, equal in condition, tlie progeny of one race, 
owing their origin to the same cause, preserving the same civilization, 
the same language, the same literature, the same religion, tiae same 
habits, the same manners, and imbued with the same opinions, propa- 
gated under tlie same forms." 

De Tocqueville, 

Hernando DeSoto, a native of Spain, in early youth 
enlisted under the banner of l*izarro, and acquired dis- 
tinction in the conquest of Peru. Returning to Spain, 
he was made governor of Cuba in 1538, and adalen- 
tado of Florida. A year after, he sailed for Florida 
with an expedition of nine vessels and six hundred 
men. It was his ambition to establish on the northern 
coast of the gulf, an empire equal to that of Peru and 
Mexico. The story of his adventure is soon told. 



30 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Landing at Tampa bay, Florida, he marched in the 
direction of Tallahassee, one of his captains, in the 
mean time, having discovered the Bay of Pensacola. 
Entering Georgia, he crossed the Ockmulgee, Oconee 
and Ogechee rivers, and marched up the Savannah 
to a point in Habersham county. Thence he marched 
westwardly across Georgia to the head waters of the 
Coosa, and along the course of the Oostenaula to the 
sight of the present town of Rome. Still moving 
down the Coosa he reached the Indian town of Tal- 
lassee, and was met by the son of Tuskaloosa, a 
powerful chief, whose rule extended from the Coosa 
and Alabama to the Tombigbee. Accepting an invita- 
tion from Tuskaloosa, DeSoto met the great chief at a 
village upon Line creek, in the count}^ of Montgomery. 
Thence he passed through the counties of Montgomery, 
Lowndes and Dallas, and crossing the Alabama, moved 
southward through WUcox. Tuskaloosa, the chief of 
the Mobiles, while accompanying DeSoto in this march, 
secretly dispatched his couriers in every direction to 
alarm and concentrate his warriors. On October 18, 
1540, DeSoto and Tuskaloosa arrived at the capital of 
the chief, the town of Mobile, situated upon the north 
bank of the Alabama, at Choctaw blulf, in the county 
of Clarke. It was here that DeSoto was attacked by 
Tuskaloosa. The battle lasted nine hours, and eighty- 
two Spaniards were killed. Forty-five horses were also 
slain and the camp baggage destroyed by fire. The 
town of Mobile was burned, and it is said that Tuska- 
loosa perished in the flames. After this disastrous vic- 
tory the Spaniards were anxious to march directly for 
Pensacola, where their ships were awaiting them with 
stores, but DeSoto, unwilling to surrender the enter- 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 31 

prise, took up his march toward the northwest, passing 
through the counties of Clarke, Marengo and Greene, 
and at last reaching the banks of the Black Warrior, 
near the village of Erie. It was there that he was 
again attacked by a large force of the Mobiles, sup- 
posed to number eight thousand warriors. The result 
was like that of all the contests between naked savages, 
armed with bows and arrows, and cavalrymen, armed 
with guns. The Indians were driven off. Crossing 
the Tombigbee, DeSoto marched westwardly through 
Mississippi, and at last reached the great father of 
waters, of which he was the first European discoverer. 
His ranks had been thinned by constant engagements 
with the brave Indians and by disease. The energy of 
his men was gone, and his own stout heart had failed 
him. In May, 1542, DeSoto died upon the banks of 
the Mississippi, and his body was buried in the waters. 
The remnant of his ill-fated expedition constructed 
boats and set sail down the river, July 2, 1543. But 
three hundred and twenty men were then left of the 
army of one thousand who had sailed from Cuba. As 
they descended the river they were attacked by fleets 
of canoes, and lost twelve in killed or drowned, and 
twenty-five in wounded. In sixteen days they reached 
the gulf and put to sea, landing at Panuca, on the 
Mexican coast, September 10, 1543, after four years 
of wandering through Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- 
sissippi and Arkansas. Such was the fate of the first 
attempt to colonize the southwest. 

It was not until 1673 that a new attempt was made 
to found a colony of Europeans upon this gulf coast 
It was in that year that two Canadians, Father Mar- 
quette, and JoUtit, a trader, sought the great father of 




32 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

waters, of which they had heard vague rumors. Leav- 
ing the lakes, they ascended Fox river, crossed to the 
Wisconsin, and made their way in canoes to the Mis- 
sissippi, and southwardly as far as the Arkansas. 
Joliet returned to Quebec and announced the result of 
his explorations. LaSalle organized an expedition and 
followed the Mississippi to the gulf, taking formal pos- 
session of the country, April 9, 1682, in the name of 
King Louis XIV. Upon information by LaSalle, of 
his discoveries, the French government fitted out an 
expedition to assist him in planting a colony near the 
Mouth of the Mississippi. They saw the importance 
of connecting their Canadian possessions by a chain of 
colonies and military posts with the Gulf of Mexico. 
LaSalle's little fleet failed to find the mouth of the ' 
great river, but landed the expedition upon the coast 
of Texas. There a colony was planted, and LaSalle, 
with a few companies, set out in search of the Missis- 
sippi. Doubt, hardships and famine led to his murder, 
by his own men, on the headwaters of the Trinity. A 
few of the adventurers made their way to Canada, and 
the rest perished on the coast of Texas. 

Six years later commences the history of the three 
Canadian brothers, who were the actual founders of 
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. Iberville had 
won some rank as a naval officer in the service of 
Louis XIV. He was commissioned in lOO^, with a 
small fleet, to prosecute the search instituted by La- 
Salle, and was accompanied by his brothei's, Bienville 
and Sanvolle. Discovering the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi, he explored the river some distance, penetrated 
the lakes, and finally established a colony at Biloxi. 
Sanvolle was appointed governor, and Bienville, lieu- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY. 33 

tenant governor of Louisiana. They at once built a 
fort upon the Mississippi, to hold the river against the 
claim to the entire gulf coast set up by the Spanish 
Governor at Pensacola. In 1701, Bienville broke up 
the establishment at Biloxi, and moved the colony to 
Mobile Bay. 

The growth of these feeble settlements W9S slow, and 
for a long time uncertain. The fear of the savages, 
and of sickness from the more fertile lands of the 
interior, caused the colonists to hug the coast closely, 
and to depend for subsistence upon barter with the 
Indians and upon contributions from the home govern- 
ment Ten years after Iberville had planted his flag at 
the mouth of the Mississippi, the condition of the 
colony of Louisiana was extremely precarious. Of 
officers and soldiers there were one hundred and twen- 
ty-two, and of civilians there were but one hundred 
and fifty-seven. In 1712, the King of France granted 
Louisiana to one of his favorites, Crozat, a wealthy 
speculator, who hoped to build up a splendid name by 
developing this extensive region. Crozat sent out as 
governor Lamotte Cadillac, who, in his dispatches to 
Count Pontchaiirain, represented Bienville's colony as 
being " a mass of rapscallians, from Canada, a cut-throat 
" set, without subordination, with no respect for religion, 
** and abandoned in vice with Indian women whom they 
" prefer to French girls." This picture of the earliest 
settlements of the gulf coast is no doubt overdrawn, 
but enough of it is ti'ue to convince the reader that 
these colonies did not possess the enterprise to lay 
broad and deep the foundation of a vigorous govern- 
ment and a flourishing commerce. 

While they remained weak and apathetic, the Eng- 



34 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

lish colony of the Carolinas was extending its arms 
westward and seeking alliances. That colony was 
forty-four years old when Crozat assumed charge of 
the gulfj and had for a long time conducted trade with 
the great tribe of Muscogees, who extended from the 
Savannah nearly to the Warrior, and even with the 
brave Chickasaws, who held for a century later undis- 
puted sway over north Mississippi. 

In 17 IG, Bienville established a military post at 
Natchez, which became the nucleus for the settlement 
of west Mississippi. This was the only inportaut event 
of the Crozat regime. In the following year his 
charter was annulled, and Louisiana was handed over to 
a West India company, of which the celebrated Law 
was chief director. This adventure also signally failed, 
the new colonists imitating then* predecessors in hug- 
ging the' coast and abstaining from agriculture. But 
war accomplished what peace had fiiiled to do. When 
hostilities began between Spain and France, in 1 7 1 9, the 
French saw the imporbmce of strengthening the popu- 
lation and resources of their colony if they would save 
the great river from the hands of the Spaniard. The 
home government ollered special inducements to set- 
tlers, and succeeded in increasing the population of the 
colonies very rapidly. Negro slaves were sent over in 
large numbers, and the cultivation of rice, indigo and 
tobacco was encouraged. 

After the peace between ^pain and France and the 
s[)read of French traders more frequently through the 
Indian tribes, the collisions between them and the Eng- 
lish traders from the Carolinas became more and more 
serious. Each tried to intlame the savages against 
. the other. The cordon of French military posts ex- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 35 

tended at this time from Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, 
a few miles north of the present city of Montgomery, 
to La Harpe's Station, upon Red River. 

The Indians complained that their peltries brought 
better prices from the English than from the French, 
and that the goods which they received fi'om the Eng- 
lish posts were of better quality and cheaper price than 
that furnished at Mobile and New Orleans. Thus earl 3^ 
did the great question which controls civilized nations, 
affect the sentiments of these savages. The Chicka- 
saws and the Muscogees allied themselves with the 
English. The Choctaws adhered to the French, and 
the Alabamas preserved an armed neutrality. Gov- 
ernor Perrier, who succeeded Bienville, in a dispatch 
to the home government, used this language : 

" The English continue to urge their commerce into 
" the very heart of the province. Sixty or seventy 
" horses laden with merchandise have passed into the 
''• country of the Chickasaws, to which nation I have 
" given orders to plunder the English of their goods, 
" promising to recompense them by a present." 

In the year 1728, the province of Louisiana was 
guarded by 800 soldiers, and employed 2000 Afi'ican 
slaves in labor. Her exports of indigo, cotton, tobacco, 
grain and lumber were becoming considerable. This 
growth in agriculture and trade was clouded but not 
checked by the massacre by the Indians of the Natchez 
settlement during the following year. 

The English Carolinas were desirous of interposing a 
barrier between themselves and the Spaniards of the 
Floridas on the one hand and the French of Louisiana 
on the other. To carry out this desire, James Ogle- 
thorpe proposed to establish a colony upon the western 



36 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

bank of the Savannah. In February, 1733, Oglethorpe 
landed on that river with thirty families, numbering one 
hundred and twenty-five persons, and immediately laid 
out the city of Savannah. Calling the chiefs of the 
Lower Creek Nation together, he obtained from them a 
cession of all the lands between the Savannah and the 
Altamaha. During the following year this colony was 
increased by a company of forty Jews ; of three hun- 
dred and forty-one Germans, and by many Scots, who 
settled at Darien. Two years later the town of 
Augusta was laid out, and a fort established there. At 
once, Augusta became the scene of an active trade with 
the Indians. Over six hundred whites were engaged 
in this trade. A highway was constructed between 
Augusta and Savannah, and boats plied between those 
towns and Charleston. We have seen how leeble were 
the settlements of Bienville after an existence of twenty 
years. Only five years had elapsed from the landing 
of Oglethorpe, before the colony of Georgia had re- 
ceived more than one thousand settlers from the trus- 
tees of the Company, and several hundred more who 
came at their own expense. 

The rapid growth of Georgia alarmed the Spanish 
Government, and led to a series of skirmishes between 
the English and Floridian Spaniards, Oglethorpe 
wisely formed alliance with the Lower Creeks. In 
their treaty it was stipulated that no one but the trus- 
tees of the colony of Georgia should settle the lands 
between the Savannah and the mountains. The Upper 
Creeks being under French and Spanish influence, did 
not unite in this treaty. They never recognized the 
cessions to Oglethorpe made by the Lower Creeks ; and 
although the English held a garrison at Ocfuskee, on 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 37 

the eastern bank of the Tallapoosa river, within forty 
miles of Fort Toulouse, planted by Bienville, they 
succeeded in converting to their cause but few of the 
Upper Creeks. 

It was in May, 1736, that Bienville determined to 
destroy the last vestige of the Natchez tribe, who had 
fled from French arms upon the Mississippi, and who 
were now hospitably entertained by the Chickasaws in 
the hills of North Mississippi and North Alabama. 
These Natchez refugees bore a deadly hatred to the 
French for the destruction of their tribe, and lost no 
occasion to instil animosity against their conquerors in 
the breasts of the brave mountaineers. The English 
fanned the flame, until the French were goaded by 
constant attacks upon their settlements to launch an 
expedition against the Natchez viUage, which had been 
established in the heart of the Chickasaw nation. 

It was planned that D'Artaquette should lead a force 
of French, with their alhes of the tribes of the Miamis 
and the Illinois, from a point upon the Mississippi, and 
should march eastward toward the heart of the Chicka- 
saw tribe, while Bienville should move up the Tombigbee 
from Mobfle and march westward to the same point. 
The two forces were to unite and extinguish the Natchez 
survivors, and destroy English influence with the moun- 
tain tribes, 

D'Artaquette reached the point of contemplated 
junction of forces, but could hear nothing of Bienville. 
He determined to make the attack alone and reap all 
the glory. His force consisted of one hundred and 
thirty Frenchmen and three hundred and sixty Indians. 
He charged the Natchez town and found himself con- 
fronted by a body of thirty Englishmen and five hun- 



38 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

dred Chickasaws. The Miamis and Illinois fled at 
once and the French were shot down by scores. Most 
of the officers were slain, and D'Artaquette himself 
fell into the hands of the enemy and was subsequently 
burned to deaths But a small remnant of the expedi- 
tion escaped, The French guns and ammunition cap- 
tured on the field were afterwards turned against 
Bienville. 

With an army of five hundred and fifty French and 
six hundred Choctaw allies, Bienville embarked at 
Mobile, and ascended the Tombigbee to the head of 
navigation, now known as Cotton-Gin Port. Not 
hearing from D'Artaquette, he marched westward 
twenty-seven miles and encountered the first Chickasaw 
village. To his astonishment he found it well fortified 
by stockades, with loop-holes for musketry, and with 
the English flag flying over the fort. Bienville 
attacked the village and was most disgracefully driven 
back. His Choctaw allies gave him no assistance in 
the battle. He left his dead and wounded on the field 
of Pontotoc, and hastily reached the river and 
descended to Mobile. This disastrous expedition term- 
inated the official career of BienviUe. 

In 1752, war broke out between England and 
France. The Chickasaws remained true to the English, 
and BienviUe's successor, the Marquis De Vaudreuil, 
determined to chastise them. He pursued the route 
followed by Bienville, landed with his army at Cotton- 
Gin Port, marched westward against the Chickasaw 
villages, and was beaten as disastrously as his prede- 
cessor had been. He returned to Mobile with no 
laurels 

At the conclusion of the French and Indian war, by 



TEDE CRADLE OF THE CONEEDERACY, 39 

treaty of February 18, 1763, France ceded to Great 
Britain all of her Canadian possessions, and all of Louis- 
iana lying on the eastern side of the Mississippi, as far 
south as Bayou Iberville. She ceded also the port and 
river of Mobile. Spain, the ally of France, ceded to 
Great Britain her province of Florida. The northern 
boundary of West Florida was declared to be the line 
32 degrees, 28 minutes, which, commencing at the 
mouth of the Yazoo river, extended through points 
near the towns of Demopohs on the Tombigbee, and of 
Columbus on the Chattahoochee. Alabama, south of 
that line, was in British West Florida ; and Alabama, 
north of that line, was in British Illinois. As soou as 
the fertile lands of Alabama and Mississippi passed 
into English hands, and a British Governor was sta- 
tioned at Mobile, Anglo-American colonies sprang up 
in every direction. A colony of North Carolinians 
settled between Manchac and Baton Rouge. Virgin- 
ians came down the Ohio and the Tennessee. Many 
immigrants came in from England, Ireland, Scotland 
and the British West Indies. All along the Missis- 
sippi, and coverino- a belt of fifteen miles^ settled 
adventurers from New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia, 
and colonies of Scots and of Germans, many of whom 
assumed French names. The British government in- 
dustriously supplied these settlers with African slaves. 

In June, 1773, the Creeks and Cherokees met the 
English at Augusta and ceded to them all the territory 
upon the head waters of the Ogeechee and northwest of 
Little river. 

Lachlan McGillivray, a young Scotch trader, had 
married an indian girl, the daughter of Marchand, by 
an Indian woman ot the tribe of the Wind. Marchand 



40 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

had been commander of Fort Toulouse. The son of 
Lachlan by the Indian pjincess, Alexander McGillivray, 
became a powerful man among the Creeks. He was 
carefully educated at Charleston, and at the age of 30 
was elected Chief of the Creek Nation. This was just 
at the outbreak of the American Revolution. The 
British commissioned him a colonel, and thus early 
secured his favor. He was actire in confederating the 
Indians against the Whigs, and led many expeditions 
of Tory Refugees and Indians against the white settle- 
ments of the Gulf 

As soon as Spain was embroiled in the war with 
Great Britain, she resolved to re-take Florida, and 
restore the Spanish flag over the country which De- 
Soto had discovered. Don Galvez attacked and 
reduced Fort Bute at Manchac and carried his arms to 
Baton Rouge. The forts along the river were surren- 
dered by the British. Thence Don Galvez sailed for 
Mobile, reduced Fort Charlotte, and received the sur- 
render of the city with all the territory from the Per- 
dido to Pearl river. With the exception of Pensacola, 
the Spaniards were now in possession of the British 
Province of West Florida. On May 9, 1781, Pensa- 
cola was also conquered by the everywhere victorious 
Galvez. 

By the treaty of Paris, Great Britain stipulated as 
the southern boundary of the American colonies now 
free, the Une of thirty-one degrees, beginning at the 
Mississippi, extending due east to the Chattsihoochee, 
down that river to the mouth of the Flint, thence to 
the St. Mary's, and along that river to the sea. Great 
Britiiin ceded East Florida and confirmed West Florida 
to Spain. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 41 

The territory between thirty-one degrees and thirty- 
two degrees twenty-eight minutes, although not ceded 
to Spain by Great Britain, was claimed by that power 
in virtue of the line adopted, under conquest by Galvez, 
as the northern boundary of West Florida. 

The colony of Oglethorpe continued to enlarge its 
proportions. In 1783, commissioners from the Georgia 
Legislature, by treaty at Augusta, acquired from the 
Cherokees the country west of the Tugaloo, including 
the head- waters of the Oconee. A small delegation of 
Creeks agreed to this treaty, but a larger portion of 
the nation repudiated it. 

After the acquisition of East and West Florida by 
Spain, the Indian chief McGillivray, who represented 
the Creeks and Seminoles, allied himself with Spain 
and agreed that there should be concert of action in 
the interest of Spain between the Creeks, Chickasaws, 
Choctaws and Cherokees. As soon as Georgia at- 
tempted to occupy the lands ceded under the Augusta 
treaty, a border war commenced. The Provisional 
Congress appointed Commissioners to treat with Mc- 
Gillivray, but only a few of the chiefs attended at the 
appointed place. Georgia protested against the inter- 
ference of the Provisional Congress, and so soon as the 
Federal Commissioners took their departure, she treated 
with the few assembled Creek chiefs for a cession of all 
the territory lying on the east side of a Hne to run from 
the junction of the Oconee and Ocmulgee to the St. 
Marys river, including all the islands and harbors. In 
thus repudiating the Congressional Commission, the 
State of Georgia, at the earliest day, while the articles of 
Confederation were the league between the States, 
denied the right of Congress to make treaties with the 



42 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Indian nations who resided within what she claimed to 
be her territory. The articles of Confederation gave 
Congress the power to make treaties witli and to 
manage affairs with Indians not dwelling within the 
boundaries of a State. When the Federal Constitution 
was adopted, in 1787, the year following the Augusta 
treaty its language gave Congress the power to regu- 
late commerce with the Indian tribes ; but in ratifying 
that instrument Georgia never for a momeni suspected 
that the absence from the Constitution of the qualify- 
ing phrase contained in the articles of Confederac}'' 
was intended to give the new Federal Congress 
authority to make treaties and regulate commerce with 
Indians resident in a Sfeite. The Georgia Legislature, 
in 178G, declared by resolution that the attempt of 
Congress to treat with the Creeks was subversive of 
the rights of the State. It also instructed its members 
of Congress to insist on a revocation of the powers of 
the Federal Commission. 

The Upper Creeks, who had never occupied the Oco- 
nee lands, waged incessant skirmish against the Geor- 
gians who dared to settle upon the disputed territory. 
McGillivray was active in every direction lie sent ;i 
detachment of Creeks to the vescue of the Cherokees, 
who were being pushed back by the North Carolinians, 
and after collecting the demoralized warriors, attacked 
a body of the Franklin troops and completely routed 
them. But three of the Americans escaped. 

At last McGillivray, in hope of being restored to the 
fortune of $100,000, which his Scotch father forfeited 
to the Whigs when he joined the Tories, and finally 
fled back to Scotland, agreed to meet Federal Commis- 
sioners for an adjustment of disputes. At the head of 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 43 

two thousand warriors he attended the Commission, at 
Rock Landing, on the Oconee, but finding that the 
basis of treaty did not contemplate a return to the 
Creeks of the Oconee lands, he abruptly terminated 
the conference. 

General Washington, now President, was at first 
inclined to declare war against McGillivray and defend 
the Oconee settlements, but finally concluded to at- 
tempt further peaceable measures. He despatched Cjol. 
Marinus Willett, a native of Long Island, and distin- 
guished as an officer in the Canadian war and in the 
Revolution, to meet McGillivray and to invite him and 
his chiefs to a conference at the seat of Government. 
The chiefs accepted the invitation and visited New 
York. When they reached that city, they were 
received by the Tammany Society, in the fiill dress of 
their order, and conducted to the presence of the Pres- 
ident and Congress. A treaty was concluded whereby 
it was agreed that the Creeks and Seminoles should be 
under the protection of the United States, and that 
they should make no treaties with any State, and that 
the Oconee lands should remain with Georgia. By 
private understanding, McGillivray was to be made 
agent of the United States, with the rank and pay of 
Brigadier General, and the various chiefs were to be 
paid annually $100 each, and to be furnished gold 
medals. Such was the inauguration of that pernicious 
system of bribery which evei- since that day has 
kept the Lidian sbmding in presence of the Govern- 
ment with a bloody scalp extended in one hand and 
the other hand stretched out for his annual subsidy of 
gold. 

Upon his return to the Coosa, McGillivray found a 



44 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

large portion of his people hostile to his New York 
treaty, and he therefore delayed carrying out its pro- 
visions. At the first convenient time, he visited 
Mobile, New Orleans and Pensacola, and entered into 
a new alliance with the Spaniards. He was made 
Spanish agent over the Creeks at a salary of $3,500 
per annum. Professing to be desirous of carrying out 
the New York treaty, he remained silent and apathetic 
while the Spanish officers incited the Indians to re- 
newed hostilities upon the Cumberland and the Oconee. 
The Spanish Government forbid fi'ee navigation to the 
mouth of the Mississippi, claimed thirty-two degrees 
twenty-eight minutes as the North boundary of West 
Florida, remonstrated against the running of the line 
around the Oconee lands, claimed surveillance over the, 
affairs of the Creeks, and declared that she would pro- 
tect them against the pretensions of Georgia. 

On February 17, 1793, McGillivray died at Pen- 
sacola. He had been a Colonel in the British service, 
and at one and the same time Brigadier General in the 
Spanish and United States service. 

After McGillivray's death hostilities between the 
Creeks and Georgians increased, until Governor Edward 
Telfair, of Georgia, determined to raise a large force 
and invade the Creek nation. President Washington 
remonstrated with Telfair and claimed that Congress 
alone had the right to prosecute such a war. But the 
Georgian denied the claim of Congress and continued 
his military preparations. So intense was the feeling 
against the pretensions of the President, that Wash- 
ington, notwithstanding his eminent services to his 
country, wau regarded with deep animosity by the 
people of Georgia of that day. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 45 

It was in June, 1796, that the Federal Government 
concluded a treaty with the chiefs of the whole Creek 
nation, ratifying that made by McGillivray at New 
York. The Creeks admitted a new entering wedge 
into their territory by giving the Federal* Government 
the right to establish posts between the Oconee and 
the Ocmulgee, although denying such permission to be 
a cession of lands. 

Thomas Pinckney, United States Minister at Madrid, 
in October, 1795, concluded a treated with Spain, in 
which the line of thirty-one degrees was defined as the 
northwest boundary of West Florida. Thus another 
large domain lyiua,' between thirty-one degrees and 
thirty-two degrees, twenty-eight minutes, and stretching 
from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee, became the 
acknowledged property of Georgia. 

In 1798, Congress, by the consent of the State of 
Georgia, organized the territory of Mississippi, com- 
prising the country hounded between thirty -one de- 
gi-ees and thirty-two degrees twenty-eight minutes, and 
between the Mississippi and Chattahoochee rivers. 
This organization by Congress, it was stipulated, was 
not to impair the rights of Georgia in the soil. Presi- 
dent Adams appointed Winthrop Sergeant, Governor ; 
John Steele, Secretary ; and John Tilton, of New 
Hampshire, and Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, Judges. 

The Natchez District was formed into two counties, 
Adams and Pickering. The population of this district 
numbered six thousand They cultivated the banks 
of the Mississippi, and the bayous and larger streams 
flowing into that river The Chickasaw and others of 
the bravest Indian tribes dwelt upon the north, east, 



46 THE CRADLE OF THE COISTFEDERACY. 

and west of these settlements, and the Spanish Govern- 
ment held the .country to the south. 

The Alabama District was organized into one 
county, Washington, which covered an area from 
which twenty counties in Alabama and twelve in Mis- 
sissippi have been since constructed. The population 
of the entire territory, excluding Indians, was at that 
time about ten thousand. 

In 1802, the Federal Government acquu*ed from 
Georgia all of her rights in territory west of the Chat- 
tahoochee. It was agreed that Georgia should be paid 
the sum of one milhon two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars, and the Federal Government stipulated thjit 
the Indians should be removed as soon as possible 
from the territory of Georgia. The purchase money 
which was to be paid could not be considered a 
ruling motive for this cession on the part of Georgia, 
since it was to be paid fi'om proceeds of the sale of 
lands within the ceded territory. The true motive by 
which Georgia was actuated was the pledge by the Fed- 
eral Government to remove the Indians from her 
limits. 

So soon as land offices were established by the Gov - 
ernment and the boundaries of old French, Spanish 
and Enghsh grants had been fixed and recognized by 
law, the territory of Mississippi received a large and 
constantly increasing population. It came from all 
sections of the United States, but chiefly fi'om Georgia, 
the Carolinas and fi'om Virginia. 

In 1801, Napoleon compelled Spain to cede the 
province of Louisiana to France; but burdened by 
European possessions and not being able to protect and 
defend so distant and at that time unprofitable colony^ 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. '47 

he readily consented, in consideration of fifteen millions 
of dollai-s, very greatly needed by his camp chest, to 
cede Louisiana to the United States. This cession 
took place April oO, 1803, and at once large numbers 
of settlers flocked into the territory of Louisiana from 
the Skites, and planted settlements fi*om the Kansas 
river to the mouth of the Mississippi. On Dec. 20, 
1803, General Wilkinson and the troops of the United 
States took possession of New Orleans. 

The people of the territories of Louisiana and Mis- 
sissippi, impatient of the Spanish garrison and com- 
mercial restrictions at Mobile, and anxious to occupy 
the lands about Bayou Sara, Baton Rouge and Man- 
chac, on the east bank of the Mississippi, and the lands 
on the Tombigbee and x\labama, south of thirty-one 
degrees, and as far as the gulf, both of which regions 
fell within the latest Spanish definition of West Florida, 
contended that the cession of Louisiana by Spain to 
France, in 1801, was a cession of that Louisiana of 
which Bienville had been the founder and which France 
possessed before 1792, and that when Napoleon, in 
1802, ceded to the United States afl the territory 
acquiied by France from Spain, he ceded not only the 
region then known as Louisiana, but also that other re- 
gion extending fi'om the Perdido to Bayou Iberville, em- 
bi'acing Mobile, which was once a part of Louisiana, 
but which afterwards became known as a part of 
Florida. The United States supported this claim. 

Some border troubles occurred between the Ameri- 
cans and the Spaniards. So intense was the popular 
feeling against the Spanish pretension and continued 
occupation of Baton Rouge and Mobile, that John 
Randolph, of the Coinniittee on Foreign Relations, re- 



48 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

ported a bill in Congress to raise an army to repel the 
Spaniards. President Jeflerson, however, exerted his 
influence, efiectually, to defeat such a warlike measure. 

The animosity against the Spanish occupancy con- 
tinued to grow for several years, during which the pop- 
ulation of Louisiana and Mississippi multiplied in every 
direction, until at last, in August, 1810, a band of 
Americans, styling themselves patriots, and under the 
lead of the Kempers, who had suffered cruelty at the 
hands of the Spaniards, organized at St. Francisville. 
made a dash upon Baton Rouge and took that place by 
surprise, killing Governor Grandpre in the assault. 
The other posts were captured • in succession, and the 
Spanish forces departed for Pensacola. 

The territory thus captured was bounded by thirty- 
one degrees on the north. Bayou Iberville on the 
south, the Mississippi on the west and Pearl river on 
the east. It embraced the present parishes of West and 
East FeHciana, East Baton Rouge, St. Helena, Living- 
ston, Washington and St. Tammany, in Louisiana, a 
territory comprising nearly eight thousand square miles, 
and equal in extent to the State of Massachusetts. 

A Declaration of Independence was published by 
the patriots in convention, and steps were taken to es-' 
tablish a government independent of the Union. The 
adventure of Aaron Burr, a few years previous, had 
inspired a wide-spread ambition to organize new gov- 
ernments after the model of the United States, from 
either unoccupied territory of the United States or 
from neighboring territory. 

The new republic commissioned Reuben Kemper to 
organize a force upon the Tombigbee to expel the 
Spaniards from Mobile and all the territory between 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERAOY. 49 

Pearl and Perdido rivers. A considerable body of men 
was soon organized and moved dr^wn the river. Halt- 
ing one mile above Blakely, they sent a note to Gov- 
ernor Folch, demanding the surrender of Mobile. 
While awaiting an answer the expedition threw off all 
military restraint and precaution, and were surprised 
by a Spanish force. A number were killed and the 
rest took to flight. A few captives were confined five 
years in Moro Castle. The United States frowned 
upon these proceedings of the Kempers, and sent a 
force to Mobile for the protection of the Spaniards. 
Had this adventure succeeded, and the country between 
the Pearl and Perdido been added to the already free 
republic of Iberville, the dominion of that Government 
would have been so extensive and favorably situated 
as to become at once self-supporting and prosperous. 

But the failure of the expedition against Mobile re- 
sulted at once in a relinquishment of all plans for an 
independent republic upon Lake Pontchartrain, and in 
the annexation of that region to Louisiana. 

Spain continued to hold the country south of thirty- 
one degrees, and to shut the Americans from the gulf, 
but the United States made valuable acquisitions of 
territory in other directions. In 1805 nothing but an 
Indian trail led from the Oconee to the Alabama river, 
at Lake Tensaw. To open a better avenue to the set- 
tlements on the Tombigbee, the Federal Government 
obtained from the Creeks the right to open a horse- 
path through their country. The chiefs agreed to 
establish bridges and houses of accommodation. In 
the same year the Cherokees granted the right for a 
mail route from Knoxville to New Orleans by way of 
the Tombigbee, and. also a cession of three hundred 



50 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

and fifty thousand acres of land, lying in the bend of 
the Tennessee river, and embracing the present county 
of Madison. In that year, also, the Choctaws ceded 
five millions of acres between the Alabama and Tom- 
bigbee rivers, and stretching from the Tombigbee to the 
Natchez settlements. It was thus that the fairest of 
his lands were being acquired from the Indian, and high- 
ways constructed through the remainder, Avhich tended 
surely to further conquest or removal. 

When war broke out between England and the 
United States, in 1812, the continued occupancy of 
the gulf coast by the Spaniard was considered danger- 
ous to our Government, as Spain was believed to be in 
secret league with England. Under orders. General 
Wilkinson, with six hundred men, sailed from New 
Orleans, in April, 1813, and on the 13th took position 
in the rear of Fort Charlotte. Captain Perez, the 
commandant, surrendered the fort, and the Spanish 
garrison retired to Pensacola. At last the whole terri- 
tory of what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Ala- 
bama was fi*ee from foreign dominion, and nothing 
was left to prevent its entire occupancy by Americans 
except the continued residence of warlike tribes of In- 
dians, whom the Federal Government, as long ago as 
1802, had stipulated with Georgia to remove. 

Notwithstanding the non-observance of this stipula- 
tion, the country was -rapidly settled by a brave and 
eijterprising people. In 1810 the population of Lou- 
isiana was 76,550 ; that of Georgia was 252,438, and 
that of the Mississippi territory was 40,352. The 
total population of this new region thus embraced more 
than 309,000 souls. Ten years later, in 1820, just as 
the Indian agitation, the slavery agitation and the free- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 51 

trade agitation had begun to divide the people of the 
United States into well defined political parties, we find 
that the population of these gulf States was as follows: 
Georgia, 340,975; Mississippi, 75,448; Alabama, 
127,901 ; and Louisiana, 152,923. They had grown 
in ten years fi^om a population of 369,000 to one of 
697,000, notwithstanding the fierce Indian war which 
had occurred in the meantime. 

This population represented a voting power two- 
thirds as great as that of Virginia, more than half as 
great as that of New York, much greater than that of 
Massachusetts, and more than one- third as great as that 
of all New England. If in the short period of one 
generation this new power in the southwest was able to 
command a political position so imposing, would not her 
continued growth in a few years restore to the South 
and to the agricultural States that preponderance in 
the government which had already shifted fi'om Vir- 
ginia to Massachusetts ? 

The unjust pohtical plans devised to curb this grow- 
ing empire were the causes which led to the establish- 
ment at Montgomery, in 1831, of the Southern Con- 
federacy. 



OHi>LP»TER III. 



Growth of the Idea of Secession — Jealousy of the Commer- 
cial against the Agricultural States — Navigation of the 
Missi»sippi — The WhisJcey Eehellion — The Jay Treaty 
— Views of Distinguished Men — Frequent Threats 
and Hopes of Disunion — The Loilisiana Purchase — 
The East Fears the South aiid West — The Hartford 
Convention — The Resolutions of ^98 — liandolpWs Re- 
ply to Patrick Henry, etc., etc. 



" An effort has often since been made to represent it as one of many 
malicions and entirely ungrounded calumnies, that there was at this 
time any serious thought of a disruption of the Union. This is only one 
instance of the white- washing tendencies and decorative coloring char- 
acteristic of the greater number of historical works. In the letters of 
the Federalists we find not only that wishes to this end were expressed, 
but that formal plans were devised." 

Von Holst's Constitutional History of the United States. 



"The Federal Government, then, appears to be the organ through 
which the United Republics communicate with foreign nations and with 
each other. Their submission to Its operation is voluntary ; its councils, 
its engagements, its authority, are theirs, modified and united. Its sov- 
ereignty is au emanation from theirs, not a flame in which they have 
been swallowed up. Each is still a perfect State, still sovereign, still in- 
dependent, and still capable, should the occasion require, to resume the 
exercise of its functions in the most unlimited extent." 

Tucker's Blackstone [1803.] 

The growth of the southwest was looked upon with 
disfavor by the poHtical leaders of the Northern States 
fiom the very hour when the Constitution recently 
adopted began to show signs of vitality ; and this dis- 
favor was intensified by the acquisition of Louisiana. 
Washington himself, even as late as 1784, did not 
regard the possession of the Mississippi river as a mat- 
ter essential to the confederation, and was accustomed, 
like the entire body of the Congress, to limit his atten- 



54 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

tion to the thirteen colonies. The outlying lands were 
regarded simply as a convenience for payment of" the 
public debt. Few if any of the statesmen of that day 
contemplated the possibility of the expansion of this 
outlying territory into populous States, whose votes in 
the Federal Congress might soon decide the balance of 
power against the North. 

The first issue between the South and North was 
distinctly and positively made when Spain, in 1785, 
reflised to yield the free navigation of the Mississippi, 
but at the same time offered a treaty, which otherwise 
would have been favorable to the commercial interests 
of the Middle and Northern States. The Secretary of 
Foreign Affairs, Mr. Jay, recommended a waiver for 
thu"ty years, of all claim to the free navigation of the 
Mississippi. The seven Northern States voted for this 
stipulation, and the five Southern States, with the ex- 
ception of one member, voted against it. Delaware 
was not then represented. Thus early were geograph- 
ical lines drawn upon a question in which the South 
exhibited a comprehensive statesmanship, and in which 
the North exhibited an unpatriotic jealousy at the ex- 
pansion of the confederation. Jefferson, writing from 
Paris, to Madison, in 1787, says: " I have had great 
" opportunities of knowing the character of the people 
" who inhabit that country, and I venture to say that 
" the act which abandons the navigation of the Missis- 
" sippi is an act of separation between the eastern and 
" western countiy. It is a relint[uishment of five parts 
" out of eight of the territory of the United States — 
" an abandonment of the fairest subject for the pay- 
" ment of our public debts, and the chaining of those 
t' debts upon our own necks, in perpetuation. I have 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 55 

" the utmost confidence in the honest intentions of 
" those who concur in this measure, but I lament their 
" want of acquaintance with the character and physical 
"advantages of the people who, right or wrong, will 
" suppose their interests sacrificed on this occasion to 
" the contrary interests of that part of the confederacy 
" in possession of present power." 

Unquestionably on this occasion the interests of all 
the settlements upon the waters of the Mississippi were 
sacrificed to the jealousy of that part of the confed- 
eracy which was then in power. In the language of 
John Adams, this unpatriotic attempt at waiver for 
thirty years, of all claim to the free navigation of the 
Mississippi, " gave rise to rankling jealousies and fester- 
" ing prejudices, not only of the North and the South 
" against each other, but of each section against the 
" ablest and most virtuous of the other." 

The jealousy which thus began under the confedera- 
tion continued after the adoption of the Constitution. 
The smaller commercial States, at the outset, while 
John Adams was President, for the most part repu- 
diated the right of secession, and denounced the reso- 
lutions of the Kentucky and Virginia Legislatures, 
which set up the doctrine that in the last resort, the 
State was the sole umpire as to all Federal questions ; 
but so soon as it appeared that the Federalists would 
lose control of the government, they hastened to ad- 
vocate and threatened disunion upon every question 
which tended to diminish their already waning power. 
There was not at that day a horror of disunion, and 
no man was stigmatized as traitor who threatened it. 
The States had made the Union, just as they had made 
the confederation, and it was difficult to understand 



56 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

how the one compact was more sacred in its origin or 
its objects than the other. The confederation had sig- 
nally failed of its purpose, and the Union might be 
equally as defective. 

As an illustration of the temper of the times it is 
interesting to note that the suppression of the whiskey 
insurrection, during Washington's administration, gave 
rise to prophecies of civil war, and of the overthrow of 
the administration. It was said that the insurgent 
district of Pennsylvania would secede from the Union, 
and that the coercive action of the Government would 
justify such secession. Jefferson feared that the 
excise law would produce disunion. Wolcott expressed 
a hope that the insurgent district would be either chas- 
tised or rejected from the Union. Hamilton was 
chagrined to find that the march of the militia to 
enforce the excise law was greeted by the people with 
laughter and derision. Edmund Randolph expressed a 
fear that the insurgents would call England to then- aid 
and thus bring about disruption of the Union. 

Another illustration of the indifierence with which 
the Union was regarded by the States whenever Federal 
laws interfered with their peculiar interests, may be 
found in the denunciation of the treaty negotiated with 
Great Britain, by Jay, in 1794. The friends of the 
French Revolution in the House of Representatives, in 
retaliation against the British Orders in Council of 1793, 
which forbade the commerce of foreign nations with 
France^ had adopted a resolution in Congress forbid- 
ding the purchase of British manufactured goods until 
the western posts were surrendered and reparation had 
been made for a violation of the neutral rights of the 
United States. Fortunately better councils prevailed ; 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 57 

but, pending the question of this embargo, there was 
the most intense excitement among the people. The 
material interests of the Federalists and a tear of her 
power bound them to England. Sympathy with the 
Republican purposes of the French bound the anti- 
Federalists or Republicans to France. New England 
was for peace with Great Britain and acceptance of 
Jay's treaty. The Middle States and the South were 
a unit against the treaty. Dwight declared that the 
people of New England would take no part in a war 
with Great Britain. Said he, in a letter to Wolcott : 
"^ Sooner would ninety-nine out of a hundred of our 
" inhabitants separate from the Union than plunge 
" themselves into an abyss of misery." Wolcott writ- 
ing to Noah Webster, expressed his impatience at the 
antagonism between the agricultural South and the 
commercial East, and his belief that "the great sec- 
" tions of the United States will not long continue to 
*' be agitated as they have been." 

Jeflerson, in the fourth volume of his Memoirs, says 
that John Q. Adams called upon him during this con- 
troversy over the embargo laws and declared that he 
had information of the most unmistakable character 
that certain citizens of the Eastern States, Massachu- 
setts particularly, were in negotiation with the British 
Government, the object of which was an agreement 
that the New England States should take no further 
part in executing the embargo laws against the hostile 
British Orders in Council, and that without formally 
declaring their separation from the Union, they would 
withdraw from all aid and obedience to it. In other 
words they would resort to nullification. 

A report by Mr. Gore, in the Massachusetts Legis- 



58 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

lature, which was adopted by the unanimous tote of 
the Federal party, declared the war enforcing the em- 
bargo " unjust, oppressive and unconstitutional, and not 
" binding." Here was a plain and explicit nuUification 
of a Federal law. If the laws in question were " not 
" binding," the State had a clear right, and it was her 
duty to resist them if she saw proper to do so. 

The political economist, Mathew Carey, writing just 
after the peace with Great Britain, sets forth very 
pointedly the reasons which inflamed the sectional jeal- 
ousy of the North against the South. 

"The naked fact is, that the demogogues in the 
"Eastern States, not satisfied with deriving all the 
" benefit from the Southern section of the Union, that 
" they would from so many wealthy colonies ; with 
" making princely fortunes by the carriage and expor- 
"tation of its bulky and valuable productions, and 
" supplying it with their own manufactures and the pro- 
" ductions of Europe and the East and West Indies, to 
" an enormous amount, and at an immense profit, have 
" uniformly treated it with outrage, insults and injury. 
" And, regardless of their vital interests, the Eastern 
" States were lately courting their own destruction, by 
"allowing a few restless, turbulent men to lead them 
"bhndfold to a separation, which was pregnant with 
" their certain ruin. Whenever that event takes place 
" they sink into insignificance. If a separation were 
" desirable to any part of the Union, it would be to the 
"Middle and Southern States, particularly the latter, 
"who have been so long harassed with the complaints, 
" the restlessness, the turbulence and the ingratitude of 
" the Eastern States, that their patience has been tried 
"almost beyond endurance. 'Jeshuran waxed fiit 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 59 

" and kicked '; and he will be severely punished for his 
" kicking in the event of a dissolution of the Union." 

The next issue between the South and North was 
upon the acquisition of Louisiana. Here, again, the 
North exhibited an unpatriotic jealousy against expan- 
sion of territory. In this matter the question of 
slavery was not mooted. The objection was to the 
acquisition of any portion of Louisiana — that at the 
head waters of the Mississippi, as well as that at its 
mouth. Again, Congress and the country were 
divided by geographical hues, and the two discordant 
elements became even more embittered against each 
other than they had been upon the Mississippi Naviga- 
tion and the Embargo questions. It was openly 
declared from Northern sources that separation from 
the Union would be preferable to acquisition of Louis- 
iana. Plum^r, of New Hampshire, said : " Admit this 
" Western World into the Union, and you destroy at 
" once the weight and importance of the Eastern States 
"and compel them to establish a separate and inde- 
" pendent empire." Griswold, of Connecticut, regarded 
as a leader of the Federal party, said : " The vast, 
" unmanageable extent which the accession of Louisiana 
" will give to the United States, the consequent disper- 
" sion of our population, and the distribution of the 
" balance, which it is so important to maintain between 
" the Eastern and Western States, threatens at no very 
" distant day, the subversion of our Union." 

The disunion design of the Federal party, in conse- 
quence of the acquisition of Louisiana is thus shown 
by John Quincy Adams, who in 1828 wrote: "This 
" design had been formed in the winter of 1803 or 
"1804, immediately after, and as a consequence of the 



60 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" acquisition of Louisiana. * * This plan was so 
" far matured that the proposal had been made to an 
" individual to permit himself at the proper time to be 
" placed at the head of the military movements which 
" it was foreseen would be necessary for carrying it into 
" execution. The project, I repeat, had gone to the 
" length of fixing upon a military leader for its exe- 
" cution." 

Mr. Adams' information was obtained from Senator 
Tracy, of Connecticut, who, although he disapproved 
the project, was made acquainted with it in all its par- 
ticulars. The Northern Confederacy was to extend, if 
practicable, so far South as to include Maryland. The 
Susquehanna was suggested as another boundary, but 
if New York could not be won over, the Hudson was 
to be the boundary. Mr. Adams gives incidents of a 
visit to Rufus King, in 1804, and says: "I found 
" there sitting Timothy Pickering, who, shortly after I 
" went in, took leave and withdrew. Mr. King said to 
" me, 'Col. Pickering has been talking to me about a 
" project they have for a separation of the States, and 
" a Northern Confederacy.' " 

Governor Plumnker, of New Hampshire, was an open 
and pronounced secessionist. In a letter to Mr. 
Adams, he admitted that he " was a disunionist at that 
"period ; in favor of forming a separate government in 
" New England ; that he was consulted on such a plan 
" by Federal members of Congress from New England." 
In his journal. Governor Plumper mentions that in 
1804, Timothy Pickering, James Hillhouse and himself 
dined with Aaron Burr ; that Hillhouse " unequivocally 
" stated that it was his opinion that the United States 
"would soon form two distinct and separate govern- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 61 

" ments." Again he says : " When the late Samuel 
" Hunt intimated to me the necessity of seceding 
" from the Union, he observed that the work must 
" commence in the State Legislatures, so that those 
" who acted should be supported by State laws." 

When Hillhouse denied the statement of Adams, 
Governor Plummer made the following entry in his 
journal : " There is no circumstance in these publica- 
" tions that surprises me so much as the letter of James 
" Hillhouse. I recollect and am certain that on return- 
" ing early one evening from dining with Aaron Burr, 
" this same Mr. Hillhouse, after saying to me that New 
"" England had no influence in the government, added 
" in an animated tone, ' The Eastern States must and 
" will dissolve the Union, and form a separate govern- 
" ment of their own, and the sooner they do this the 
" better.' But there was no man with whom I con- 
" versed so often, so fully, and so freely as with Roger 
" Griswold. He was without doubt or hesitation deci- 
" dedly in favor of dividing the Union and establishing 
" a Northern* Confederacy." 

Gov. Plumper speaks of walking for hours with 
Pickering, who said " that he thought the United 
" States too large and their interests too diversified for 
" the Union to continue, and that New England, New 
" York, and perhaps Pennsylvania might and ought to 
" form a separate government. He then paused, and 
" looking me fully in the face, awaited my reply. I 
" simply asked him if the division of the States was 
" not the object which General Washington most pa- 
"thetically warned the people to oppose. He said, 
" 'yes, the fear of it was a ghost that for a long time 
" haunted the imagination of that old gentleman.' " 



62 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

From the day of the ratification of the Federal 
Constitution, the Southern States saw themselves out- 
stripped by the Northern and Eastern States, in popu- 
lation and wealth. But at the opening of the present 
century the aoricultural interests of the South received 
an impetus fi-om the increased value of cotton planting, 
and • it was just then that a combination of circum- 
stances attracted to the South and West the attention 
of the country and inflamed that jealousy at the North 
which had survived the acquisition of the Mississippi 
river and the adoption of the Jay treaty. 

The experiments which were being made for cheap- 
ening the production of cotton, by applying machinery 
to the removal of the seed promised a speedy and rapid 
appreciation of Southern lands and power. The efforts 
which had been made by General Washington and 
Governor Telfair, to remove from the gulf country all 
the Indian tribes ; the cession by Georgia to the 
United States of all the territory between the Chatta- 
hoochee and the Mississippi ; the prospect of a speedy 
erection of this territory into at least two States ; the 
fortunate, acquisition by President Jefferson of Lou- 
isiana and the great territory stretching from the Mis- 
sissippi river to the Pacific Ocean, capable of erection 
into a hundred States and certain of giving birth to at 
least two more States within a few years — all alarmed 
the political leaders of New England as to a contin- 
uance of their power. 

For some years to come they might control the pop- 
ular branch of Congress, but, if these schemes were to 
be permitted, the new States would soon overshadow 
the old in the Senate. The labors of New England 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 03 

were therefore still more ardently directed towards 
curbing the power of the great southwest. 

So long as the commercial States controlled by New 
England prevailed in the Federal Government, the de- 
sired curb was to be found in an exercise of the power 
of Congress. When Virginia and Kentucky pro- 
tested in their celebrated resolutions of 1798 against 
the alien and sedition laws, and declared that as there 
was no umpire to settle disputes between the State and 
Federal Government, each State must decide for itself 
the measure of its grievances and the mode of redress, 
all of the commercial States at once denied the 
doctrine. No matter that Jefferson, the author of the 
Declaration of Independence, had written the one set 
of resolutions, and Madison, the father of the Consti- 
tution, had written the other, every one of these States 
admitted the power of Congress to enact the alien and 
sedition laws. The agricultural States denied that 
power. 

But when the growth of the southwest was observed, 
and the acquisition of Louisiana was impending, the 
very men and the very States, who in order to vindi- 
cate the alien and sedition laws, denied to the States 
all power to decide for themselves against any Federal 
act, however oppressive or iniquitous, now openly and 
boldly advocated a dissolution of the Union. 

From his seat in Congress, Josiah Quincy, a leading 
statesman of Massachusetts, declared that if the bill 
for the purchase of Louisiana became law it was a vir- 
tual dissolution of the Union, that it would free the 
States from their moral obligation ; and as it would be 
the right of all, it would be the duty of some to pre- 
pare for a separation — amicably if they could, violently 



04 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

if they must. The doctrine of secession and nuUifica- 
tion thus obtained its first practical application in New 
England. The embargo affected their maritime in- 
terests. Therefore they went so far as to designate 
the man who was to be the military chief of their 
secession movement. The acquisition of Louisiana 
threatened their political supremacy. Therefore they 
declared that the extension of our territory justified vio- 
lent separation ; and we find Aaron Burr, a prominent 
statesman of New York, relying upon the tacit consent 
of the North and the possible forbearance of the South, 
organizing an armed expedition to make New Orleans 
the capital of a great southwestern republic. 

This spirit of sectionalism acquired additional growth 
at the North, and especially at the East, during the war 
of 1812. It had not as yet appeared at the South. 
While the South rallied as one man to the aid of the 
oppressed seamen of the United States (all of northern 
birth), the States of New England, at first clamorous 
for war, so soon as they saw that their ships were left 
idle and their commerce destroyed, were as ardently 
clamorous for peace. They deflxmed President Madi- 
son, and held up to him, " the Island of Elba ! or a 
" halter." The acts of nuUification at the outbreak of 
the war were numerous. The resolutions of their leg- 
islatures went as far as the more celebrated but not 
more pointed resolutions of '98. The executives of 
Connecticut and Massachusetts refused to place their 
militia, when called into service, under command of the 
President, as required by the Constitution. The Gov- 
ernor of Vermont ordered the return of the militia of 
that State, which had gone upon the expedition to 
Canada. Nothing was left undone to embarrass the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 65 

financial operations of the Government, to prevent the 
enHstment of troops, to keep back the men and money 
of New England from the service of the Union, and 
to force the President from his seat. Illicit trade was 
carried on with the enemy, and free traffic was con- 
ducted between Massachusetts and Great Britain 
through a separate custom house. Beacon fires were 
lighted as signals to the enemy. The fall of Detroit 
was openly rejoiced at The acts of individuals soon 
became the acts of government. The Massachusetts 
Legislature authorized delegates to meet like delegates 
from other New England States, at Hartford, to con- 
sult upon the subject of " their pubHc grievances and 
" concerns," and upon " the best means of preserving 
" their resources." Chief among the recommendations 
of that convention was — that an amendment be pro- 
posed " for restraining Congress in the exercise of an 
^' unlimited power to make new States and to admit 
" them into the Union." Through all their proceed- 
ings the under-current of complaint was at the loss of 
political power by the growth of the States. It was 
the old jealousy of the small States against the large 
States which had so seriously obstructed the formation 
of the Constitution. 

A clergyman of Boston expressed the sentiment of 
the hour when he said — " The Union has long since 
" been virtually dissolved, and it is full time that this 
" part of the dis-united States should take care of 
" itself" Another doctor of divinity thus addressed 
his flock : ^' The Israelites became weary of yielding 
" the fi:uit of their labor to pamper their splendid 
<' tyrants. They left their political woes. They sep- 
" arated ; where is our Moses ? "Where the rod of his 



66 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" miracles ? Where is our Aaron ? Alas ! no voice 
" from the burning bush has directed them here." 

An irrepressible conilict was admitted at that day as 
existing between the smaller States of the East, which 
were engaged in commercial pursuits, and the larger 
Sta,tes of the South, which were engaged more espe- 
cially in agriculture. '"" Events ma^y prove," says the 
Journal of the Hartford Convention, January 4, 1815, 
" that the causes of our calamity are deep and perma- 
" 7icnt. They may be found to proceed, not merely from 
" bhndness of prejudice, pride of opinion, violence of 
" party spirit, or the confusion of the times ; but they 
" may be traced to implacable combinations of indi- 
" viduals or States, to monopolize power and office and 
'' Lo trample without remorse upon the rights and 
" interests of the commercial sections of the Union." 

" Whenever it shall appear," continues the Journal, 
*' that these causes are radical and permanent, a separa- 
•* tion by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an 
" alliance hy constraint among nominal friends hut real 
" enemies, inflamed hy mutual hatreds and jealousies, 
" and inviting hy intestine divisions^ contempt and 
" aggressions from abroad.'''' The Hartford Convention, 
having thus announced that there were such serious 
conflicts of interest between the commercial and agri- 
cultural States, the maritime and the inland, as to 
threaten a permanent calamity to the States of New 
England, proceeded to announce the remedy for the 
evil. The remedy proposed was precisely that sug- 
gested by the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. The 
Convention said : " That Acts of Congress in violation 
" of the Constitution are absolutely void, is an unde- 
''niable position. It does not, however, consist with 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 67 

*' the respect from a confederate State towards the 
" general government, to fly to open resistance upon 
" every infraction of the Constitution. The mode and 
" the energy of the opposition should always conform 
" to the nature of the violation, the intention of the 
" authors, the extent of the evil inflicted, the determi- 
" nation manifested to persist in it, and the danger of 
"delay. But in cases of deUberate, dangerous, and 
^' palpable infractions of the Constitution, afeding the 
^^sovereignty of the State, and the liberties of the 
'' people ; it is not only the right, but the duty, of such 
" State to interpose its authority for their protection, in 
"' the manner best calculated to secure that end. When 
" emergencies occur, which are either beyond the reach 
" of judicial tribunals, or too pressing to admit of delay 
" incident to their forms. States which have no cojimon 
" Umpire, must be their own judges and execute their 
" own decisions." 

It will be observed that the Convention recognized 
the possibility of emergencies beyond the reach of 
judicial tribunals, and for the settlement of which there 
is no common umpu'e. In the debate between Mr. 
Webster and Mr. Hayne, in 1830, at the session of 
Congress during which the question arose as to the 
conflicting jurisdiction of the State of Georgia and 
the Federal Government, the umpire declared by Mr. 
Webster, in all cases affecting the powers of the gen- 
eral government, was the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Mr. Hayne insisted that courts, whether su- 
preme or inferior, are the mere creatures of the sover- 
eign power designed to expound and carry into effect 
its sovereign will, and that no independent State ever 
yet submitted to a Judge upon the bench the tiue con- 



68 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

struction of a compact between itself and another sov- 
ereign. In proof that the judiciary were not designed 
to act as umpires it is only necessary to observe that 
in a great majority of cases the Supreme Court could 
manifestly not take jurisdiction of the matters in dis- 
pute. " Whenever it may be designed by the Federal 
*' Government," prophesied Mr. Hayne, " to commit a 
" violation of the Constitution, it can be done and 
" always will be done in such a manner as to deprive 
" the court of all jurisdiction over the subject." Like- 
wise Mr. Madison, in his report upon the Virginia Res- 
olutions of '98, says : " But it is objected that the 
"judicial authority is to be regarded as the sole expos- 
" iter of the Constitution in their last resort ; and it 
" may be asked, for what reason the declaration by the 
" general assembly, supposing it to be theoretically 
" true, could be required at the present day, and in so 
" solemn a manner ? On this objection, it might be 
" observed, first, that there may be instances of usurped 
" power which the forms of the Constitution would 
" never draw within the control of the judiciary depart- 
" ment ; secondly, that if the decision of the judiciary 
" be raised above the authority of the sovereign parties 
" to the Constitution, the decisions of the other depart- 
'* ments, not carried by the forms of the Constitution 
" before the judiciary, must be equally authoritative 
" and final with the decisions of that department." 

These views of Mr. Hayne and of Mr. Madison, 
accord with the opinion which prevailed at the Hartibrd 
Convention, as to the impotency of the Supreme Court 
to decide grave questions aflecting the sovereignty of a 
state. A few years later than the sjreat Webster- 
Hayne debate, it was seen that the Supreme Court 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 69 

refused to decide as to the legitimate sovereignty of 
Rhode Island, referiing the whole question to the polit- 
ical department of the government, and following its 
decision. To us, of the present day, who have seen 
the Supreme Court shorn of its powers, gr increased 
in members, by the political department of the govern- 
ment, at pleasure, in order to secure a decision one way, 
or to defeat a decision another way, it is evident that 
the Supreme Court of the United States is no umpire 
between the States and the Federal Government. 

The spirit of sectionalism thus owed its birth to New 
England, and found the only basis for its independence 
in those principles of State sovereignty which remained 
undisputed for forty years from the foundation of the 
government. Mr. John Quincy Adams, then Minister 
to Russia, writing from St. Petersburgh, October 24th, 
1813, says: "If New England loses her influence in 
" the councils of the Union, it will not be owing to any 
" diminution of her population, occasioned by these 
*' emigrations : it will be from the partial, sectarian, or 
"as Hamilton has called it, clannish spirit, which 
" makes so many of her political leaders jealous and 
" envious of the West and South. This spirit is in its 
" nature, narrow and contracted, and it always works 
" by means Hke itself Its natural tendency is to excite 
" and provoke a counteracting spirit of the same char- 
" acter; and it has actually produced that efed in our 
'''' country r Such is the testimony of one of New 
England's representative sons against his own people. 

Is it surprising that this partial, selfish, clannish 
spirit of sectionalism which planted itself boldly on the 
extremest doctrines of State rights, should arouse a 
counteracting spirit in the people of the Gulf States 



70 THE CRADLE OP THE CONEEDERACY. 

and lead them to assert the sovereignty of their right- 
ful State laws over every inch of their territory, even 
though it should be in the face of a writ of error from 
the Supreme Court of the United States and in the 
face of Federal troops ? 

The greater part of the southwest was finally and 
completely opened up to settlement by annexation to 
the United States, as we have seen, just as the consti- 
tutional questions which divided the friends of Jeffer- 
son from those of Hamilton, were the subject of vio- 
lent party contention. The most vital of these ques- 
tions affected this district closely, and the people were 
educated in politics by practical experience of the 
operation of the Constitution as construed by one party 
or the other. Their first lesson in constitutional law 
came from that doctrine of Jefferson and Madison, set 
forth in the resolutions of 1798, which was a few years 
later incorporated in the resolutions of the Hartford 
Convention. 

The Virginia Resolutions, adopted by her Legislature, 
December 24th, 1798, were written by James Madison, 
who has been styled " the Father of the Constitution." 
The most important paragraph of those Resolutions is 
the one which declares that " in case of a deliberate, 
" palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not 
" granted by the said compact, the States who are 
" parties thereto, have the right and are in duty bound 
" to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and 
" for maintaining within their respective limits the 
"authorities, rights, and liberties, appertaining to 
" them." 

The Kentucky Resolutions, adopted by that State, 
November 10th, 1799, were written by Jefferson, 



THE CRADLE OP THE OONFEDERAOY. 71 

after consultation with Madison. The language made 
use of was not so guarded as that of the Virginia reso- 
lutions. It declared that the Federal Government 
"was not made the exclusive or final judge of the 
" extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that 
" would have made its discretion, and not the 
" Constitution, the measure of its powers : but that as 
" in all other cases of compact between parties having 
" no common judge, each party has an equal right to 
"judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode 
" and measure of redress." The Resolutions went on to 
define the manner in which this principle might be put 
into practice, by declaring that " the several states who 
" formed that instrument [the Constitution] being sov- 
"ereign and independent, have the unquestionable 
"rio-ht to iudo;e of the infraction : and that a nuUifica- 
" tion by those sovereignties of all unauthorized acts 
" done under color of that instrument, is the rightful 
*^ remedy." 

At a later day, when the sentiment in favor of 
Union had become strengthened by time and by the 
growing greatness of the Republic, it was endeavored 
to argue away the plain meaning of these celebrated 
resolutions. Madison, in 1 831, asserted that his Reso- 
lutions were merely declaratory of opinion, that they 
pointed out no mode of correcting illegal Federal acts, 
that the words "to interpose" meant legal interpo- 
sition, and that the word " nullification " which appears 
in the Kentucky Resolutions was not to be found in the 
Virginia Resolutions. Benton, in his "Thirty Years' 
View," attempts a defense of Jefferson, by asserting 
that he was not the author of the Kentucky Resolu- 
tions. The publication of Jetfei'sou's Works at a later 



72 THDfi CRADLE OP TflB CONFEDERACY. 

day refutes the denial of Benton, and the evasions of 
Madison, There were found among his papers, two 
original drafts, in Jeflerson's own handwiting, of the 
Kentucky Resolutions. In one of them is this resolu- 
tion: that when the general government assumes 
powers " which have not been delegated, a nullification 
'' of the Act, is the rightful remedy : that every State 
" has a natural right, in cases not within the compact 
" l^casus non foederis^ to nullify of then' own authority, 
"all assumptions of power by others within their 
" Umits." 

Although the Virginia Resolutions used the words 
"to interpose," where Kentucky used the word 
" nullify," there is not room for a shadow of doubt that 
both meant the same thing. Jefferson says that the 
conference on the Kentucky Resolutions took place 
between him and the two brothers Nicholas, and he 
adds : " I think Mr. Madison was either with us, or 
"consulted, but my memory is uncertain as to the 
"minute details." The two sets of resolutions bear 
upon their face evidence of consultation and unity of 
sentiment between the two distinguished authors. Von 
HoLST, professor at the University of Freidburg, in his 
Constitutional History of the United States, very justly 
says, with reference to these Resolutions : " In a word, 
" as the principles advanced in the Resolutions were the 
" same, they led to the same logical conclusions, which 
' were clearly expressed in the Kentucky Resolutions, 
" namely, the right of the States, through the organ of 
"their Legislatures, to 'resolve' that laws of Congress 
" were unconstitutional, and therefore void and of no 
"effect." 

Jefferson wrote to Madison, November 17th, 1798, 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 73 

enclosing him a draft of the Kentucky Resolutions, 
and we have nowhere^ in evidehce, any protest against, 
or diflerence of opinion, as to the use of the word 
" nullification," expressed by Madison, until the lapse 
of more than thirty years, when South Carolina, under 
the teachings of Calhoun, put in practical effect the 
doctrines of the Kentucky Resolutions. John Quincy 
Adams, in his eulogy on Madison, said: "Concurring 
" in the doctrine that the separate States have a right 
" to interpose in cases of palpable infractions of the 
" Constitution by the government of the United States, 
" and that the alien and sedition acts presented a case 
"of such infi'action, Mr. Jefferson considered them 
" as absolutely null and void, and thought the State 
"Legislatures competent, not only to declare but to 
" make them so, to resist their execution within their 
" respective borders by physical force and to secede 
" from the Union rather than submit to them, if atr 
" tempted to be carried into execution by force." 

Whatever doubt there may be as to what Madison 
meant by the right and duty of the State "to interpose" 
to prevent Federal infractions of the Constitution, there 
is no doubt as to what Jeffrrson meant, and not the 
least doubt as to what Virginia meant The State of 
Virginia meant precisely what the State of Kentucky 
had said. At this time Hamilton wrote to Drayton, 
Speaker of the House, charging that the Virginia Res- 
olutions meant the overthrow of the Government, and 
that her hostile declarations had been followed up by 
preparations for the use of force. He declared that 
Virginia had taken steps to put her militia on a war 
footing, and had established magazines and arsenals. 
The truth of this charge is not denied by Randall, 



74 , THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

the biographer of Jefferson. Indeed, at a somewhat 
later day, John Randdph admitted in Congress that 
there was no longer any cause for concealing that the 
great armory at Richmond was built to enable the 
State of Viro-inia to resist bv force the encroachments 
of the then administration upon her indisputable 
riiihts. 

The views of the anti-Federalists were well expressed 
by John Randolph when in March, 1799, he debated 
with Patrick Henry at Charlotte Courthouse, Virginia. 
Mr. Henry, at the request of Washington, had come 
from his retirement and olfered himself as candidate 
for the legislature, with the purpose of defending the 
acts and doctrines of the Federal administration under 
Adams. Randolph was a mere youth, and his reply to 
Henry was the first of a long series of l)rilliant ad- 
dresses. He had been educated in the ideas of Jefiter- 
son and Madison. Said he : " In questions of meum 
" and tuum, where rights of property are concerned, 
"and some other cases specified in tlie Constitution, I 
" grant you that the Federal judiciary may pronounce 
" on the validity of the law. But in questions involv- 
" ing the right to power, whether this or that power 
" has been delegated or reserved, they cannot and 
" ought not to be the arbiter ; that question has been 
" left, as it always was, and always must be left, to be 
'* determined among sovereignties in the best way they 
"can. Political wisdom has not yet discovered any 
"infallible mathematical rule by which to determine 
" the assumptions of power between these who know no 
" other law or limitation, save that imposed upon them 
" by their own consent, and which they can abrogate 
" at pleasure." He continued : " Shall the creature 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 75 

" of the States be the sole judge of the legality or con- 
" stitutionality of its acts, in a question of power 
" between them and the States ? Shall they who 
"assert a right be the sole judges of their authority to 
" claim and to exercise it ? Does not all power seek to 
" enlarge itself? — grow on that it feeds upon ? Has 
" not that been the history of all encroachment, all 
" usurpation? " 

Mr. Henry had said that the remedy for unau- 
thorized Federal laws, when the Federal judi'.-iary had 
no cognizance of the case, would be found in the priv- 
ilege and right of petition " Petition ! Whom are 
" we to petition ? '■ repHed Randolph. " Those who 
" are the projectors of these measures, who voted for 
" them and forced them upon you in spite of your will ? 
" Would not those men laugh at your petition, and, in 
" the pride and insolence of new born power, trample it 
" under their feet with disdain ? " 

From this brief review of the opinions and wishes 
of pohtical leaders of both of the early parties, it is 
seen that the right of nullification and secession was 
recognized by either party whenever the administration 
was in the hands of its opponents, or whenever the ten- 
dency of events pointed to a diminution of the power 
and inllueuce of the section in which its strength lay. 
The friends of Jefterson might threaten secession one 
day because of the sedition act ; but it was the party 
of Adams which threatened disunion on the next day 
because of the extension of territory or of an embargo 
upon commerce; Under these leaders the Southwest 
came into existence and began its wonderful growth. 
At their very birth the Gulf States had seen a des- 
perate attempt by New England to strangle them 



76 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

under the continued rule of Spain and of the Indian 
savage. The first political lesson learned in infancy 
was that they were a bastard offspring, regarded with 
aversion by the mother who should have nourished 
them. The first political cry that met their ears was 
the cry from Massachusetts, that their accession to the 
Union was justifiable cause for disunion, and a similar 
cry from Virginia that each State has the right to 
judge for itself of an infraction of the Constitution and 
to assert the mode of redress. 



CHi^t^TER IV. 



fJurisdiction of the United States Over Indian Tribes — The 
Fee Simple of Lands Oecnpied by the Tribes — The 
Yazoo Frauds — The Decision in the Case of Fletcher 
vs. Peck — Indif/)iatio7i of the People of Georgia — Con- 
stitutional Questions growing out of that Decision^ &c. 



"Congress have the exclusive right of pre-emption to all Indian 
lands lying within the territories of the United States. * * * The title 
Is in the United States by the treaty of peace with Great Britain, and by 
subsequent cessions from France and Spain, and by cessions from the in- 
dividual States; and the Indians have only arlglitof occupancy and the 
United States possess the legal title subject to that occupancy, and with 
an absolute and exclusive right to extinguisli the Indian title of occu- 
pancy either by conquest or purchase." 

Kent's Commentaries on American Law. 



" Randolph was in Georgia at the time of the perpetration of this 
villainy, and participated in the shame and mortification of his friends 
at seeing persons reputed religious and respectable, eflTecting a public 
robbery, by bribing the legislature of the State, and reducing theai to the 
horrors of treachery and perjury. A more detestable, impudent, and 
dangerous villainy is not to be found on record." 

Garland's Life of Randolph. 



Under the Articles of Confederation the United States 
had the power to manage all affairs with the Indian 
nations not members of a State. I'he language of the 
article conveying the power was this : " The United 
'' States in Cone;ress assembled, shall also have the sole 
" and exclusive right and power of * * regulating 
" the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians, 
" not members of any of the States, provided that the 
" legislative right of any State witliin its own limits be 
" not inffinged or violated." 



78 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

It was claimed under this grant that the Federal 
Government could manage all Indian affairs of whatever 
character, except affairs relating to individual Indians 
who may have subjected themselves to State laws and 
become citizens of the State. In all other cases, 
whether the Indian tribe resided within or without the 
limits of a State, the United States alone cculd regulate 
and rule themi It was seen at once that this Federal 
jurisdiction must conflict with the right of a State to 
rule the people of every class within its own limits, and 
that interminable confusion would result from the sub- 
jection of one class of the people within a State to one 
set of laws, and those of another to another set. When, 
therefore, the Constitution was fi-amed, the States dc- 
cHned to renew this grant ; but contented themselves 
simply with adopting this provision, the only one in 
that instrument referring to the Indian : 

" The Congress shall have power * * to regu- 
" late commerce with foreign nations, and among the 
" several States and with the Indian tribes." 

The plain meaning of this section is that the United 
States should regulate commerce with those Indian 
tribes which dwelt upon lands not belonging to a State, 
and which were outside the jurisdiction of a State. 
This is evident from the fact that commerce with the 
Indian tribes alluded to is placed in connection with 
commerce between the StJites and foreign governments. 
The right to manage all affairs with the Indians, such 
as the United States possessed under the articles was 
withdrawn under the Constitution, and yet the Federal 
Government proceeded under the Constitution to exer- 
cise the authority it wielded under the articles, to reg- 
ulate commerce with Indian tribes, both within and 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 79 

without the limits of a State, and also to manage all 
Indian affairs, without regard to whether the tribes 
were within or without the State. 

Such a claim, and an attempt to enforce it, was the 
occasion of serious difficulty between the Federal Gov- 
ernment and the Slate of Georgia from an early day. 
The questions which sprang from this claim, agitated 
the people of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, from 
the year ] 795 to the close of the administration of 
President Jackson, a period of more than forty years. 
Notwithstanding the denunciations which have been 
hurled at the State of Georgia for her action and posi- 
tion in these Indian (questions, a review of the facts 
M.nd the law, must convince every dispassionate reader 
that at each step of the controversy, the people of the 
Southwest are Vindicated. 

'I'he first question which arose between the State of 
Georgia and the Federal Government was, who pos- 
sessed the lee simple of the lands lying within the 
l)oundaries of the State, but occupied by Indian tribes? 
An answer to this question is found in the International 
Law which prevailed among Christian Powers at the 
period of the discovery of America. 

When the American Continent was discovered by 
the Europeans, the several nations who settled it with 
colonies united in the declaration that discovery gave a 
title to the government by whose subjects it was made, 
against all other European governments whose title 
might be consummated by possession. The nation 
making the discovery was recognized among Christian ^ 
people as having the sole right to make terms with the 
Indians, and to plant settlements. The Indians were 
admitted to be the rightful occupants of the soil with a 



80 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

legal, as well as just, claim to retain pot^session of it, 
and to use it according to their own discretion; but 
their rights to complete sovereignty were necessarily 
diminished, and then' power to dispose of the soil at 
their own will, to whomever they pleased, was denied by 
the original fundamental principle, that discovery gave 
exclusive title to those who made it. 

While the difierent nations of Europe respected the 
rights of the natives, as occupants, they asserted the 
ultimate dominion to be in themselves : and claimed 
and exercised as a conveyance of this ultimate domin- 
ion, a power to grant the soil while yet in possession of 
the natives. These grants have been understood by 
all, say the Supreme Court of the United States, to 
convey a title to the grantees, subject only to the 
Indian right of occupancy. 

Spain, in all her discussions with France, Great 
Britain and the United States, based lier title on the 
rights given by discovery. Upon the same basis rested 
the claim of Portugal to the Brazils : and upon this 
basis, France claimed all Canada and Acadie, as well as 
Louisiana, when her population was insignificant, and 
when the Indians occupied nearly all the country. 
Holland based its title to the New Netherlands, upon 
the discovery by Hudson. 

Great Britain recognized with equal distinctness the 
rights of discovery. In 1496 Cabot was commissioned 
to take possession in the name of the King of England 
of all countries he might find, " then unknown to all 
« Christian people." Here we find asserted the right 
to take possession of the country, notwithstanding the 
occupancy of the natives who were heathens, and at 
the same time admitting the prior title of any Christian 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 81 

people who may have made a previous discovery. 
The charter granted to Sir Humphrey Gilbert in 1517 
authorizes him to discover and take possession of such 
remote, heathen and barbarous lands as were not pos- 
sessed by any Christian prince or people. This charter 
was afterwards renewed to Sir Walter Raleigh, in nearly 
the same terms. In 1606, by charter, afterwards en- 
larged in 1G09, James I granted to colonists all the 
lands between the thirty-fourth and forty-first degrees 
of north latitude, along the sea coast and into the land 
from sea to sea. In all of this territory the soil, at the 
time the grants were made, was occupied by the Indians; 
yet almost every title within these boundaries is depen- 
dent on these grants. It has never been objected to 
any of these original grants that the title as well as 
possession was in the Indians when it was made, and 
that it passed nothing on that account. 

Under all the treaties which affected the possession 
of this country by European states, the title given by 
discovery was relied upon, and the fact that the ter- 
ritory was largely, often entirely, occupied by Indian 
tribes, was ignored as of no importance. Such was the 
case under the treaty of Uti'echt, in 1703, when France 
ceded Nova Scotia to Great Britain ; and under the 
treaty of 1763, when Spain ceded Florida to Great 
Britain ; and also under the secret treaty when Fmnce 
ceded Louisiana to Spain. All the nations of Europe 
have invariably asserted for themselves and recognized 
in others the exclusive right of the discoverer to appro- 
priate the lands occupied by the Indian. 

The American States have recognized the principle 
thus inherited from the old world. At the close of the 
Revolution, Great Britain conveyed all of her rights, 



B2 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

proprietary and territorial, to the colonies, and thereby 
all of her rights to the soil passed to the States. "^ It 
^' has never been doubted," says Chief Justice Mar- 
shall, in his opinion in the case of Johnson vs. Mcin- 
tosh, "that either the United States or the several 
" States had a clear title to all the lands within the 
'^' boundary lines described in the treaty, subject only 
" to the Indian right of occupancy, and that the ex- 
" elusive power to extinguish that right was vested in 
" that government which might constitutionally exer- 
" cise it." 

Virginia in 1779 passed an act declaring her exclu- 
sive right of pre-emption from the Indians, of all the 
lands within the limits of her chartered territory, and 
denying the right of any person to buy lands from the 
Indians. The territory ceded by Virginia to the Fed- 
eral Government was occupied by numerous and war- 
like tribes of Indians, but the exclusive right of the 
United States to extinguish their title and to grant the 
soil has never been doubted. 

In 1845, in a case before the Supreme Court of the 
United States, (United States vs. Rogers,) Chief 
Justice Taney used this language : ^' It is our duty to 
" expound and execute the law as we find it, and we 
'* think it too firmly and clearly established to admit of 
" dispute that the Indian tribes residing within the ter- 
" ritorial limits of the United States are subject to their 
" authority ; and where the country occupied by them 
" is not within the limits of one of the United States, 
" Congress may by law punish any offence committed 
" there, no matter whether the ollender be a white man 
" or an Indian. 

Assuming a right over all of her lands which thus 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERAOY. 83 

far had never been denied, and which had been acted 
upon by all of the thirteen original States, the General 
Assembly of Georgia, in 1798, authorized a conditional 
sale of the larger portion of her territory lying between 
the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi. Three com- 
panies were organized by speculators to acquire these 
valuable lands. The *'South Carolina Yazoo Company" 
agreed to pay sixty thousand dollars for five millions 
of acres, now embracing the middle counties of Mis- 
sissippi. The Vu-ginia Company agreed to pay ninety- 
three thousand dollars for seven millions of acres, em- 
bracing what are now the northern counties of Missis- 
sippi. The " Tennessee Company," for forty-six thous- 
and dollars agreed to purchase three millions five hun- 
dred thousand acres, now lying in north Alabama. 

Steps were being taken to occupy the several pur- 
chases, when a question arose as to the right of Georgia 
to sell the lands claimed by Spain, between thirty-one 
degrees and thirty-two degrees twenty-eight niinutes. 
A still more serious question, and one to which atten- 
tion has already been called, arose, as to the right of 
Georgia to dispose of the fee simple of lands occupied 
still by Indian tribes, with whom the Federal Govern- 
ment had treaties, and who had never granted to the 
whites the lands which the State was now claiming her 
right and power to convey to speculating companies. 
The Union had just been formed, and President Wash- 
ington was unwilling that anything should be done to 
embroil the infmt republic with a foreign power. He 
was also fearfiil of the effect upon the Union of a gen- 
eral Indian war. But the chief motive for his opposi- 
tion to the Yazoo sale may be found in the jealousy 
which he entertained for the power of the Federal 



84 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Government as against the claims of a State. He had 
seen during the continuance of the preceding/- weak 
Government, that under the articles of confederation 
the United States had the right to make treaties with 
the Indian tribes (or nations as they were improperly 
styled) not residing within a State, and he either failed 
to observe that that clause was excluded from the new 
Federal Constitution, or construed its absence as mean- 
ing that the new Government were to make treaties 
with and have exclusive charge of Indian tribes both 
outside as well as within a State. He still believed 
that the old practice of treating with the tribes as 
though they were independent sovereigns should be 
continued by the general Government, and that the 
States being precluded from making treaties, could not 
properly deal with the Indian people, and could not 
legally ahenate the lands they occupied. The question 
which puzzled Washington was that which puzzled the 
Government for many years after his day, and which 
will be practically solved at last only by the subjection 
of the Indian to the laws which rule every other citizen 
of the Republic, of whatever color or race. 

The President issued a proclamation against the 
attempt of the companies to occupy the lands, and as 
they all failed to pay the purchase money within the 
time stipulated, the State rescinded the sale. 

In December, 1794, the Legislature of Georgia, by 
a majority, passed a new bill contracting for a sale of 
the Yazoo territory. This bill was vetoed by Gov- 
ernor Mathews because of the inadequacy of the con- 
sideration offered, and on the gi'ound that it would 
create a monopoly. A few days subsequently. Gov- 
ernor Mathews gave way to the importunities of the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 85 

Assembly and signed another bill in January, 1795, 
which was designed to accomplish the purpose of the 
.first, but which was more guarded in some of its expres- 
sions. This " Yazoo Act " set out that the Articles of 
the Confederation had stipulated that each State was to 
retain her territory : that by the treaty with Great 
Britain, the boundary of Georgia was confirmed as 
being the same claimed by her repeatedly and recog- 
nized by the convention between South Carolina and 
Georgia, held at Beaufort, in 1787 : that the State had 
the right of pre-emption over all the lands within her 
borders occupied by Indian tribes : that the treaty 
claimed to have been made at New York, between 
McGilhvray and the Federal Government, had never 
been recognized by Georgia: that the confederation 
had no right to make that treaty with Indians, resident 
within a State: that President Washington had no 
right to agree with McGillivray and his chiefs, and to 
guarantee all the tenitory west of the Oconee, to the 
Creeks : and that the State had the right to convey fee 
simple titles to all of her territory, whether to individ- 
uals or to companies. 

The importance of these positions taken by Georgia, 
will appear hereafter. The claim thus set forth by her 
in the preamble to the Yazoo Act, has been recognized 
as correct by the Supreme Court of the Uniied States 
in various decisions, but at that day it was denied 
strenuously by President Washington and the Federal 
party. We will see how it became the occasion for pro- 
longed hostility between the Gulf States and the Fed- 
eral Government, and for the development of that 
responsive spirit of jealousy on the part of the State 
against the unjust pretensions of the Union, which edu- 



86 1?H^ CRADLE oF THE OONPEDERACY. 

cated the people of this section;, from the earliest day, 
in the doctrines of State rights, nullification, and finally 
secession, as the only remedy against Federal usurpa- 
tion. 

Four Yazoo companies were formed under this Act, 
and for the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, 
twenty-one millions and five hundred thousand acres of 
land were conveyed. The companies paid promptly 
into the State treasury one-fifth of the purchase money 
and obtained titles fi'om the Governor. They hastened 
at once to re-sell the lands to those who might, in case 
of a repeal by the State, set up a title as innocent pur- 
chasers without notice. As soon as this sale was con- 
summated. President Washington laid a copy of the 
Yazoo Acts before Congress, saying — "These Acts 
" embrace an object of great magnitude, and their con- 
" sequences may deeply aflect the peace and welfare of 
^' the United States." Congress instructed the Attor- 
ney General to investigate the title of Georgia to the 
lands in question. 

Before, however, any action could be taken by the 
Federal Government, the people of Georgia themselves 
effectually disposed of these Yazoo Acts. While they 
acknowledged the right of the State to the fee simple 
of the lands involved, they repudiated the sale so far 
as lay in their power, as having been secured through 
bribery and corruption. 

The opponents of the Act denied the power of the 
Legislature to sell, and denounced the scheme as trans- 
ferring the richest part of the territory of Georgia with 
all the inchoate rights of the settlers to the tender 
mercies of a speculative coiporation. They contended 
with gTeat reason, that the members had not been 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 87 

elected with a view to such a proposition, and that the 
people should be consulted at a new election before pas- 
ing upon such a momentous subject. So deep was the 
popular indignation that several of those who voted for 
the Act were actually slain upon theu' return home: 
some had then' dwelhngs burned: others fled the State: 
and one was even pursued and killed in Virginia. All 
of them were repudiated and spurned by the people. 
Their votes were held as affixing a mark of disgrace to 
themselves and entailing infamy for years upon their 
children. 

There were men of virtue and high position who 
advocated and supported the Yazoo Acts. They held 
that the sale of the western territory to different com- 
panies would be productive of a more rapid settlement 
of the lands, the erection of new States, and the speedy 
building up of an interest quite equal to the task of 
compassing the extinguishment of the whole Indian 
tribe. There can be no question that these men were 
deceived as to the character of those who managed the 
business of securing the sale, however honest they may 
have been as to the merits of the question itself 
William Few, then a Senator in Congress from Geor- 
gia, bears this testimony : " In fact Georgia was inva- 
'"'• ded and overrun by a horde of speculators and other 
" adventurers, just after the close of the Revolution, and 
" was as completely changed for a time as to character, 
" sentiment, or conduct, as ever was England after the 
'*■ Saxon or Norman invasion." He declared further, 
that " it is hardly susceptible of proof, that any per- 
'* sons, born or bred in Georgia, were any more than 
" dupes in the fi-aud." Mr. Few was doubtless correct. 
We have seen in another day, and after a fiercer 



88 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERAC"^. 

revolution, an invasion of similar adventurers, and the 
perpetration of similar frauds, without the connivance 
or consent of the native population. There is no rea- 
son to believe that Governor Mathews was corrupted. 
But so bitter was the feeling against all who aided 
directly or indirectly in the passage of the obnoxious 
Acts, that to this day no county of Georgia has been 
named for one of its first and most gallant governors ; 
and never since that day has a member of a Georgia 
Legislature, elected by the Anglo-Saxon population, 
dared to exercise his office corruptly. One of the first 
lessons of the century in the Gulf country taught 
honesty in poUtical life. It was remembered for gene- 
rations. 

The people of Georgia made the expressed opinion 
of a politician with reference to the validity of the 
Yazoo sale a test of his fitness for of35ce. If he held 
that the Legislature had the right to sell the territory, 
and that the purchasers acquired title by the sale, he 
sank to an obscurity from which he could never rise. 
James Jackson, a young man of great tact and ability 
and boldness, who had served with distinction in the 
Revolution, and who was elevated to the gubernatorial 
chair at an unusually early age, was now a member of 
Congress. He was of ardent temperament, the soul of 
honor, and chivalrous in the highest degree. Of com- 
manding and graceful figure, eloquent in expression, a 
determined enemy and an impulsive friend, positive in 
thought and act, and holding in utter contempt every 
species of deceit and treachery, he wielded a wide in- 
fluence throughout South Georgia. Resigning his seat 
in Congress, this young " Bayard," without fear and 
without reproach, announced himself as a candidate for 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEBEUACY. 89 

the State Legislature, declared that " Repeal of the 
Yazoo sale " should be the rallying cry of the honest 
sons of Georgia, and proceeded to visit every section of 
the State, addressing popular assembUes and calHng for 
an uprising of the people to rebuke the first corrupt 
scheme that ever passed a Georgia Legislature. He 
inspired the multitudes with his own enthusiasm, was 
elected to a seat in the Assembly, proposed and secured 
a repeal of the Yazoo sale, and then at the head of a 
procession of members of both houses, bore the manu- 
script of the repealed Act to the public square, and 
with a sun glass burned it to ashes. Henceforth the 
rising young men of Georgia knew that to preserve 
popular favor they must keep the robes of office un- 
sullied. 

The " Yazoo Fraud " question did not make its 
appearance again until after the State of Georgia, in 
1802, had ceded to the United States all of her lands 
lying between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi. 

In the "Articles of Agreement and Cession" 
between Georgia and the United States, was a proviso 
that the latter may dispose of or appropriate a portion 
of the lands covered by the Yazoo grants, not exceed- 
ing five millions of acres, or any part thereof, for the 
purpose of satisfying, quieting, or compensating any 
claims other than those recognized in the Articles 
of Agreement, which may be made to the said lands. 
It was under this provision that the New England and 
Mississippi Land Company, who, in the meantime, had 
purchased the title of the original grantees of a corrupt 
Legislature, petitioned Congress to satisfy then' claim 
by a fair purchase or commutation. In the session of 
1802-3 this subject was first brought to the attention 



90 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY. 

of Congress. Mr. Madison and Mr. Gallatin, members 
of the Cabinet, and Mr. Levi Lincoln, were appointed 
commissioners to investigate the subject. They made 
an elaborate report and concluded with a proposition 
that so much of the five millions of acres as shall 
remain after having satisfied the claims of settlers and 
others, not recognized by the agreement with Georgia, 
which shall be confirmed by the United States, be 
appropriated for the purpose of satisfying and quieting 
the claims of the persons who derive their titles from 
the Act of the State of Georgia, passed Jan. 7, 1795. 
The head of this New England and Mississippi Land 
Company was Gideon Granger, then Postmaster Gen- 
eral. He was the agent of the Company to prosecute 
the claim before Congress. Referring to Mr. Granger 
and his application to Congress in this case, Mr. John 
Randolph said : " The first year I had the honor of a 
" seat in this House, an act was passed somewhat of a 
" similar nature to the one now proposed. I allude to 
"the case of the Connecticut Reserve, by which the 
" nation was swindled out of three or four millions of 
" acres, which, like other bad titles, had fallen into the 
" hands of innocent purchasers. When I advert to 
" the applicants by whom we were then beset, I find 
"among them one of the persons who styled them- 
" selves the agents of the New England and Mississippi 
" Land Company, who seems to have an unfortunate 
" knack of buying bad titles. His gigantic grasp em- 
" braces with one hand the shores of Lake Erie, and 
" with the other stretches to the Bay of Mobile. * * 
" Mr. Speaker, when I see the agency which is em- 
" ployed on this occasion, I must own that it fills me 
" with apprehension and alarm. The same agent is at 



THte CitADLE OV THE CONFEDERACY. 91 

" the head of an Executive Department of our Gov- 
'^ ernment, and inferior to none in the influence at- 
" tached to it. * * This officer presents himself at 
" your bar at once a party and an advocate. Sir, when 
" I see such a tremendous influence brought to bear 
" upon us I do confess it strikes me with consternation 
" and despair. Are the heads of Executive Depart- 
" ments, with the influence and patronage attached to 
" them, to extort from us now, what we refused at the 
" last session of Congress." 

Mr. Granger and his friends professed great indigna- 
tion at the opposition of Randolph, and threatened to 
canvass Few England in the interest of the company 
who now claimed to hold as innocent purchasers under 
the rescinded Yazoo law. Prominent among those 
who aided and sympathized with the company was 
Aaron Burr, who doubtless was in league with the 
claimants to add their portion of the Yazoo territory 
to the country which he hoped to erect into an inde- 
pendent Southwestern Republic. 

In order to estabhsh their claim, a case was made by 
the claimants for adjudication by the Supreme Court 
of the United States. James Gunn and others, who 
held one of the grants, sold certain lands to John 
Peck, who in turn sold to Robert Fletcher. Peck 
made a deed to Fletcher, and Fletcher sued Peck for 
breach of covenant, in that the State of Georgia at the 
time of passing the Yazoo Acts, had no good right to 
seU and dispose of the lands in question. One of the 
covenants of the deed from Peck was that aU the title 
which Georgia ever had in the lands had been legally 
conveyed, and another was that the title to the lands 
bad in no way been impaired by virtue of the subse- 



92 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

quent rescision of the Acts by a new Georgia Legis- 
lature. 

Thus the questions came up which were to have so 
marked an influence upon Southwestern politics. (1). 
As to the right of a State to the fee simple of lands 
occupied by Indian tribes. (2) As to the right of a 
State to interfere with vested rights by rescision of a 
contract. 

The Supreme Court refused to say that bribery of 
a General Assembly would invalidate an Act. " It 
" would be indecent in the extreme," said the Chief 
Justice, " upon a private contract between two indi- 
" viduals, to enter into an enquiry respecting the corrup- 
" tion of a sovereign power of a State. If the title be 
" plainly deduced from a Legislative Act, which the 
" Legislature might constitutionally pass, if the act be 
" clothed with all the requisite favors of a law, a court, 
" sitting as a court of law, cannot sustain a suit brought 
" by one individual against another, founded on the 
" allegations that the Act is a nullity, in consequence 
" of the impure motives which influenced certain mem- 
" bers of the Legislature which passed the law." 

The Supreme Court decided that the constitutional 
inhibition forbidding a State to enact a law invalidat- 
ing a contract, applied to this case. It was the unani- 
mous opinion of the Court that the repealing Act did 
not deprive purchasers from the Yazoo grantees of 
rights under the Acts of 1795, and that the lands in 
controversy having passed into the hands of a pur- 
chaser for valuable consideration and without notice, 
the rescisive Act of the State of Georgia was inope- 
rative, null and void as to such innocent })urchaser. 

To sustain the rights of the purchasers in this case, 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 93 

it was necessarily held also that Georgia had a right to 
sell the lands in question, although then occupied and 
claimed by Indian tribes. It was found by the Court 
that the grant of Carolina by Charles I, to the Earl of 
Clarendon and others, comprehended the whole country 
from thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, to twenty- nine 
degrees, and from the Atlantic to the South Sea. Seven 
of the eight proprietors of the colonies surrendered to 
George I, in 1729, who appointed a governor for South 
Carolina. 

In ] 732, George I granted to the Lord Viscount 
Percival and others, seven-eighths of the territory be- 
tween the Savannah and the Altamaha, and extending 
west to the South Sea, the remaining eighth part, 
which was still the property of the heir of Lord Carte- 
ret, one of the original grantees of Carolina, was after- 
wards conveyed to them. This territory was constitu- 
ted a colony, and called Georgia. The Governor of 
South Carolina continued to exercise jurisdiction south 
of Georgia. In 1752, the grantees surrendered to the 
cr6wn, and in 1754 a governor was appointed by the 
crown, with a commission defining; the boundaries of the 
colony. In 1765, a commission was issued to the 
Governer describing the boundaries of Georgia, as 
extending westward to tlie Mississippi. The lands 
involved in the case of Fletcher vs. Peck, lay within 
the boundary defined by the commission of 17 63. It 
was thus held to be the exclusive property of Georgia, 
inherited and acquired by the right of conquest. 
Chief Justice Marshall, in passing upon this branch of 
the case, said: "The question whether the vacant 
" land within the United States became joint property, 
" or belonged to the separate States, was a momentous 



94 THE CRADLE OF THE COKFEDERACY. 

" question, which at one time threatened to shake the 
" American confederacy to its foundation. This im- 
" portant and dangerous contest has been compromised, 
"and this compromise is not now to be disturbed." In 
conclusion of his opinion, he says : " The majority of 
" the Court are of opinion that the nature of the 
" Indian title, which is certainly to be respected by all 
" Courts until it be legitimately extinguished, is not 
" such as to be absolutely repugnant to seizin in fee on 
" the part of the State." 

Although the Supreme Court was thus cautious in 
its language in 1810, when this decision was ren- 
dered, we find that Chief Justice Ttacy and the Court 
had become positive in 1845. There was at that day 
no longer a doubt as to the seizin in fee by the State of 
all lands within her limits occupied by Indian tribes 
This right to the soil was recognized by Kent in his 
Commentaries, as early as 182"', as will be seen by 
reference to the paragi-aph fi'om his writings quoted at 
the beginning of this chapter. 

The importance of this decision of Fletcher vs. 
Peck, was at once understood by the States It was 
the first adjudication which announced that the control 
by a State of its own territory is not unlimited, but 
that the General Government has the right in certain 
cases to restrain the State from annulling its own 
patent. The Court declared that when a law is in its 
nature a contract, a repeal of the law cannot divest the 
rights acquired under it by innocent purchasers without 
notice, and that their title shall not be impaired. The 
Court held that a grant ]3y a State is a contract within 
the meaning of the Constitution, and a party is always 
estopped by his own grant. A party cannot pronounce 



/ THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 95 

his own deed invalid whatever cause may be assigned 
for its invalidity, even though that party be the Legis- 
lature of a State. A gi-ant amounts to an extinguish- 
ment of the right of the grantor, and implies a con- 
tract not to reassert that right. A grant from a State 
is as much protected by the operation of the provision 
of the Constitution as a grant from one individual to 
another ; and the State is as much inhibited from im- 
pairing its own contracts, or a contract to which it is a 
party, as it is from impairing the obligation of contracts 
between individuals. 

Such was the decision of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, No matter that the voice and consent 
of Georgia had been obtained through misrepresenta- 
tion on the part of her Greneral Assembly. No matter 
that bribery and corruption had extorted a shameful 
sacrifice of most valuable property from the accidental 
representatives of the people No matter, said the 
United States Judiciary to the innocent people, whether 
the grant was made rightfully or wrongMly, " you are 
"' not to be the judge of that question ; you are 
" estopped from questioning anything but the existence 
" of your patent." No wonder the people of Georgia 
were indignant at such a decision, so unexpected, so 
novel, so antagonistic to the theory of State sovereignty 
in which they had been educated. 

The opponents of the decision contended that the 
inhibitory clause of the Federal Constitution simply 
applied to cases of contract between man and man, and 
not to cases in which a sovereign State directly or in- 
directly was a party. It appeared to them monstrous 
that a State should be bound by the unauthorized acts 
of her agents, simply because a citizen had acquu'ed a 



96 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

vested right thereby. Could it not be left safely with 
the State to make compensation for injury to innocent 
parties in such case ? Before the States would ratify 
the Constitution they insisted upon an amendment for- 
bidding the judicial power of the United States to any 
suit in law or equity by the citizen of another State or 
of a foreign country against any of the States. If the 
State could not be compelled to abide by a contract 
made with a citizen of another State or a foreigner, 
how could she be compelled by the United States to 
abide by a contract with one of her own citizens ? The 
people of the State were filled with indignation against 
the alleged encroachment by the General Government 
against their rights. 

The Federal party which had adhered to the admin- 
istration of Washington, from this day began to fall 
away more rapidly than ever. The Republican party 
of Georgia grew with wonderful rapidity, and soon 
there appeared upon the stage such men as John 
Forsyth, William H. Crawford, Thomas W. Cobb, 
Duncan G. Campbell, Augustus Clayton, Eli S. Shor- 
ter, John M. Dooly, Freeman Walker, John M. Ber- 
rien, Stephen W. Harris, and Geo. M. Troup. Into 
every political campaign entered the principles of Gov- 
ernment involved in the Yazoo transaction. The 
people were on the side of Georgia, and this splendid 
array of youthful intellect was on the side of the 
people. The current all set towards the sovereignty of 
the State ; there was barely a perceptible eddy in the 
other direction. 



CHA^t>TER V. 



Relation of the Union to the Indian Tribes — Relation of the 
State to the Tribes Within Its Limits — The Georgia 
Aet of Cession — Nofi- Observance of the Contract on 
the Part of the United IStates — The Treaty Making and 
Commerce Regulating Power — Conflicting Views as to 
Indixm Rights — Practice of the Northern and Eastern 
States — The Neio Theory of Equality of Races ^ (fcc, cfcc. 



" But the project of ultimately organizing them [the Indian tribes] 
into States, within the limits of those States which had not ceded or 
sliould not cede to the United States the jurisdiction over the Indian 
territory within tlieir bounds, could not possil)ly have entered into 
the contemplation of our Governiuent. Nothing but express authority 
from the States could have justified such a policy, pursued with such 
a view." 

William Johnson, Associate Justice Supreme Court U. S. 

" The main point involved, was not the rights of the Creeks, but 
the corner-stone of the legal foundation of the whole TTnion. It is 
true that there was no danger that this corner-stone would be broken 
and shattered on the instant. But the demand of principiis ohsta! 
was again urged upon the Federal Government, and in a more press- 
ing way than ever before." 

Von Holst's Constitutional History, p. 449. 

A majority of the States represented in the con- 
vention which framed the Constitution, either ceded to 
the United Suites the soil and jurisdiction of their 
western lands, or claimed it to he remaining within 
themselves. Congress assented as to ceded, and the 
States as to the unceded territory, their right to the 
soil absolutely and the dominion in full sovereignty, 
within their respective limits, subject only to the Indian 
occupancy, not as foreign States or nations, but as 
dependent on, and appendant to the State govern- 



98 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDEEACY. 

ments. Before the convention took action, Congress 
erected a government in the Northwestern territory 
containing numerous and powerful tribes. It was 
ordained that the territorial laws should extend over 
the whole district, and divisions were created for the 
execution of the civil and commercial law. Although 
the Indians were, for a long time, and generally, per- 
mitted to regulate their internal affairs in their own 
way, it was not by any inherent right acknowledged 
by Congress or reserved by treaty, but because Con- 
gress did not see proper to exercise its full powers 
of sovereignty. This complete sovereignty was de- 
clared and asserted in all the regulations of Congress, 
from 1775 to 1788, in the Articles of Confederation, 
in the Ordinance of 1787, in the Proclamation of 
1788, and in the case of the Southwestern Indians in 
the Treaty of Hopewell in 1785. 

In the Act of Cession made by Georgia to the 
United States in 1802 of all lands claimed by her west 
of the line designated, one of the cnditions was: " that 
" the United States should, at their own expense, 
" extinguish for the use of Georgia, as early as the 
"' same can be peaceably obtained, on reasonable terms, 
" the Indian title to lands within the State of Georgia." 
Finding that the Federal Government delayed to 
carry out their part of the stipulation, and were adopt- 
ing measures looldng to the perpetual occupation of 
these lands by the Indians, such as the erection of 
school houses and churches, the parcelling out of farms 
among them, and their education in the arts of civil- 
ized life, the State of Georgia resolved to extend her 
laws over the entire Indian territory within her borders. 
She claimed, as has already been seen, a fee simple 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 99 

title to these Indian lands. She claimed and exercised 
the right to sell these lands to the Yazoo speculators; 
and the Supreme Court of the United States, in 1810, 
had decided that she had a right to, make the sale, and 
should not annul it. There could be no higher recog- 
nition of her right to sovereignty, over the vast terri- 
tory covered by the Yazoo Acts, than the opinion of 
Chief Justice Marshall in the case of Fletcher vs. 
Peck. 

If Georgia, as was admitted by a majority of the 
court in that cause, had a fee simple title to the soil, it 
was a worthless title so long as the Federal Government 
recognized a right on the part of the Indian tribes to 
occupy the soil at will. The analoiiy of an estate in 
remainder or reversion could not apply, since no time 
or circumstance was fixed for the reversion to happen. 
There could not be two concurrent sovereignties. The 
State repeatedly remonstrated to the President, and 
called upon the Federal Government to take the neces- 
sary steps to fulfil the stipulations as to removal. 
She complained that while the Indian title to immense 
tracts of country had been extinguished elsewhere, but 
little if any effort had been made in that direction 
within the limits of Georgia. This delay was attrib- 
uted either to a want of attention on the part of the 
United States, or to the effect of its new humanitarian 
policy towards the red man. In one or more of the 
treaties, titles in fee simple to certain reservations of 
land were given by the United States to individual 
Indians. This was complained of by Georgia as a 
direct infraction of the condition of the cession. 

Georgia complained also that the pohcy of the Gov- 
ernment in advancing the cause of civilization among 

L.ofC. 



100 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

the tribes, and inducing them to assume the forms of a 
regular government and of civilized life, was calculated 
to promote an attachment to the soil they inhabited, 
and to render the purchase of their title more dilhcult, 
if not impracticable. Mr. Jefferson in 1809, in a letter 
to the Cherokees, recommended them to adopt a regu- 
lar government, that crimes might be punished and 
property protected. He pointed out a mode by which 
a council should be chosen, who should have power to 
enact law ; and he also recommended the appointment 
of judicial and executive officers, through whom the law 
should be enfoiced. In the treaty of 1817, the Cher- 
okees were encouraged to adopt a regular form of gov- 
ernment, and they thereupon adopted a government 
modelled on that of a State. Subsequently a law was 
passed by Congress making kn annual appropriation of 
$10,000, as a school fund for the education of Indian 
youths. Missionary labors among the Indians were 
also sanctioned by the Governnient, by granting per- 
mission to reside in the Indian country to those who 
were disposed to engage in such work. The means 
thus adopted by the United States to reclaim the 
savage from his erratic life, and induce him to assume 
the forms of civilization, no doubt tended to increase 
his attachment to the soil, and the difficulty of pur- 
chasing it as the United States had agreed with Georgia 
to do. It was not contemplated by the State at the 
time of the cession that any obstructions to the fulfil- 
ment of the contract should be allowed, umch less 
sanctioned, by the United States. 

Georgia denied that the power of the United States 
to make treaties authorized the Government to treat 
with Indian tribes as though they were sovereign and 



THE CRADLE OP THE OONFEDEEAOY. 101 

independent nations. The Indian tribe was in no sense 
a nat"on. It did not own the fee simple of the lands it 
hunted over. It occupied, said Chief Justice Marshall, 
towards the State in whose Hmits it was included, or to 
the United States, if it lay without the borders of a 
State, the relation of a ward to a guardian. Assuredly 
a guardian could not treat with his ward. In the 
treaty of Hopewell, March 15, 1^75, just after the 
Revolution, the Commissioners of the United States 
expressed themselves in these terms : •' The Commis- 
" sioners Plenipotentiary of the United Sbites give 
" peace to all the Cherokees, and receive them into the 
" favor and protection of the United Stjites, on the 
" following conditions." This was the language of 
conquerors and sovereigns, and not the address of 
e({uals to equals. Such an agreement was simply a 
promise or contract, and in no way worthy or deserving 
of the title of treaty. In designating the country to 
which the Cherokees should be confined, the Commis- 
sion(TS used this language : " The boundaries allotted 
" to the Cherokees for their hunting grounds." The 
concession was all on the side of the United States. 
No right of possession of the soil in the Indian was 
recognized. Down to that day the tribes did not claim 
to be recognized as nations, and no nation on earth 
had ever looked upon them as sulliciently sovereign to 
become parties to what is technically known as a treaty. 
If they should declare war, and issue letters of marque 
or reprisal, no one would respect their commissions. In 
the treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokees renounced every 
attribute of sovereignty. They received as a boon the 
territory allotted to them : the right of punishing 
intruders into that territory was conceded by the con- 



102 iTttfi CRADLfi OP 1?KE CONFEDERACY. 

queror, not asserted by the tribe, and the sole and 
exclusive right was claimed by the conqueror of regu- 
lating then' trade and managing all their affairs in such 
manner as the Government of the United States should 
think proper. To leave no question as to the subjec- 
tion of the tribes, the United States in the so-called 
ti'eaty of Hopewell provided : " For the benefit and 
" comfort of the Indians, and for the prevention of 
'' nijuries and aggi'essions on the part of the citizens 
" or Indians, the United States, in Congress assembled, 
" shall have the sole and exclusive right of regulating 
" the ti'ade with the Indians, and managing all 
" their affairs in such manner as they shall think 
" proper." 

Georgia claimed under this HopeweU treaty that the 
United States had plenaiy power to do with the Indians 
as they might think proper. A similar and equal 
power to that which the United States possessed over 
Indian tribes outside of Georgia, clciirly belonged to 
the State as regards thooe tribes within her limits. The 
Federal Government had only the power which it in- 
herited fi.'om the State. The treaties that followed that 
of Hopewell, namely, those of Holston and Tellico^ 
referred to and confirmed that of Hopewell. 

The use of the word " treaty," as applied to these 
agreements, contracts or stipulations made with Indian 
tribes is of no significance. Thus in the second article 
of the Holston treaty, so-called, occurs these words : 
"That the said Cherokee nation will not hold any 
"treaty with any foreign power, individual. State, or 
" with individuals of any State." The application of 
the word treaty to an agreement with an individual is 
evidence that it was not used in its strict technical 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 103 

sense, and was not intended to mean a contract between 
sovereign powers. Georgia protested that these agree- 
ments with conquered and dependent Indian tribes 
were not such treaties as were made by the Constitu- 
tion the supreme law of the land, and therefore the 
Federal Government, under color of these so-called 
treaties had no right to interfere with the State of 
Georgia in managing every foot of her own soil and 
every person resident within her borders. 

A memorial of the Georgia Legislature in 1819, 
urged the President to hasten the fulfilment of the 
agreement of 1802. The Administration professed 
wiUingness to carry out the stipulation, but the Indians 
refused to sell. A council of Creek chiefs at Tucke- 
bachee declared. May 25, 1824, that the lands still in 
their possession were only sufficient for the support of 
the tribe. Said they : " We have guns and ropes, and 
" if any of our people shall break these laws, those 
" guns and ropes shall be thek end." On the 29th of 
October, of the same year, a council of chiefs met 
again and passed a resolution of the same tenor, and 
committed it, '' confiding in the magnanimous disposi- 
" tion of the citizens of the United States to render 
"justice to the Indians" — to a newspaper for pubhca- 
tion, " so that it may be known to the world." In 
reply to the Commissioners of the United States, 
Duncan G. Campbell and James Merriwether, who con- 
ferred with them at Broken Arm, in the following 
December, John Ross and the Creek chiefs used 
decided lano;uao;e. 

It was suggested to the Indian, by the Commis- 
sioners, that but two courses were left him. He must 
consent to removal to hunting grounds beyond the 



104 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Mississippi, or he must be incorporated in the State , 
government. To the first of these propositions was 
given an emphatic no. To. the second, it was rephed 
that the happiness which the Indians once enjoyed by 
a quiet and undisturbed ease, before the face of the 
white man was seen upon the continent, was afterwards 
poisoned by the bad fi-uits of the civiHzed tree which 
he had planted around them. Wars arose, the moun- 
tains and plains were covered with carnage, and the 
Elysian fields drenched with blood ; and many noble 
tribes, whose unfortunate doom it was to have been 
overshadowed by the expanded branches of this tree, 
drooped, withered, and are no more. The Indian 
tribes have become extinct whenever merged into 
the white population. Invariably they have fallen 
an eai'ly and easy sacrifice to the ambition, pride, and 
avarice of the civilized man. Defrauded out of their 
rights ; treated as inferior beings, because of their pov- 
erty, their ignorance and their color, they have been 
thrown with the most degraded of society, from whom 
they imbibed habits of debauchery and intemperance, 
with all the vices that follow in their train Their 
lands have been swept from under their feet by the 
ingenuity and cunning of the white man, and being 
left destitute of a home, ignorant of the arts and 
sciences, and possessing no experience in the occupa- 
tions of a laborious and industrious life, they have 
become vagrants among strangers. By successive and 
constant oppressions, their spirits have been depressed 
and broken, and finally, they have been urged by 
misery to hasten the period of a troublesome existence 
by resort to inteniperanco and every description of 
sensuality. Such have been the causes which fixed 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 105 

the doom of extinction to many of the proudest Indian 
tribes ; and such, they protested, would be their own 
doom if incorporated into the family of the white man. 

If we concede that it is impossible for the Indian to 
practice the arts of peace and civiHzed life, these men 
undoubtedly spoke the language of truth. It is amus- 
ing, after the lapse of half a century, to recur to the 
reasons assigned by Governor Murphy, of Alabama, 
for arriving at the conclusion of Ross and his braves. 
In his message to the Alabama Legislature he seriously 
sai(il : 

" To civilize a people from a rude and barbarous 
" condition, they should be removed from the influence 
" of the vices and luxuries which prevail in civilized 
" life, and subjected to that discipline and^ instruction 
" by which a change of life, manners and mental 
" improvement is gradually produced. The virtues 
''must first be cultivated, and the mind strengthened 
" against the seductions of vicious gratification. Such 
" is the natural order of things ; and experience only 
" confirms what they might justly predicate on a cor- 
" rect knowledge of human nature. S'uch has been 
" the evidence of history ; for the provinces farther 
" removed from the vices, refinements and luxuries of 
" Rome, but subjected to its laws and instructed by its 
" arts, made the most solid, if not the most innnediate 
"progress in civihzation. This necessary course can 
" not be pursued with the Indians whilst they remain 
" within our Hmits ; they have continued access to 
" whatever tends to corrupt them ; they have con. 
" stant testimony that their condition is regarded as 
" inferior to others, than which nothing is more 
" destructive to vh'tuous pride and generous emulation ; 



lOG THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" aud the abaudoued part of our people (who alone can 
" mingle freely with tlie nation as a body without 
"' losing their standing in society), will introduce our 
" vices and prevent the intjoduction of our virtues." 

More candid and much more philosophic wa^ the view 
tiiken of I his dillicult problem by Go\ernor Troup, of 
Georgia. He held tJiat if such a scheme as the incor- 
poration of the Indian and his amalg-amation with the 
society of the Anglo Saxons, was practicable, the 
utmost of rights and privileges which pubHc opin- 
ion would concede him would be a middle station 
between the white man and the negro slave ; that if he 
should survive this degradation, without the possibihty 
of attaining to the position of the former, he would 
gradually sink to the condition of the latter, would 
intermarry and amalgamate with the negro, and thus 
extiuiiuish his proud race of huntsmen by transforming 
it into a loathsome hybrid without the docihty of the 
mother nor the pride of the lather. 

The State of Massachusetts had been earliest to 
enact a law agjiiust intermarriage between the Indian 
and the Anglo-Saxon. It was entitled "An Act for 
tlie better preventing of a spurious or mixed issue." 
Our foretathers. understanding the inferior character of 
the colored races, reRised to permit amalgamation, and 
Wsited it with the severest penalties of law. They pos- 
sessed a lofty pride of race which, in a grea' measure, 
has been lost to their descendants. Their lirm resolve 
to preserve the purity of the race, and to continue its 
dominion over the land, was strengthened by the aspect 
presented by Central and South America, and the 
Spanish isles. There the races had been received into 
poUtical fellowship ; the white blood had been adul- 



THE CliADLK OF THE CONFEDEEAOY. 107 

terated, and government had become a by- word and 
reproach. The Pilj^i'ims Fathers who came flying from 
[)erHecution, [»iously returned thanks to God for the 
won(Jerful dispcjiisatiori of His Providence in sweepinji; 
away whole tribes of Indians with pestilence. 1'he 
Indian was considered by them an incumbrance upon 
the land, and the mode of dealing with him was en- 
tirely discretionary. The whole of Rhode Island was 
bought for fifty fathoms of beads. But the colonies 
invariably claimed possession under the royal charters, 
and not by purchase. In war, the Indian was never 
treated as a civilized enemy. The male adults were 
exterujinated. The females and children were reduced 
to slavery. Massachusetts sold the son of King 
Philip into slavery. In Virginia, Massachusetts? 
Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania, laws were 
passed, some still existing, to regulate, to protect 
and to punish Indians. In Massachusetts the in- 
termarriage of an Indian and white was forbidden as 
debasing the Anglo-Saxon blood. The white man by 
his oath could purge himself of a charge brought by 
an Indian. In Connecticut as late as 1774, we fmd a 
statute enacted which provides that if' any Negro, 
Indian or Mulatto servant is found wandering out of 
the town of his residence without a written pass, he is 
made liable to seizure and return to his master. At a 
recent day Maine had passed an Act " for the regula- 
"tion of the Penobscot and Passamarj^uoddy tribes." 
Everywhere the laws of the State were extended over 
the Indian. The difference between his condition 
North and his condition South, was that at the North 
• he was placed upon the level of a slave, and at the 
South he was treated simply as an uncivihzed fieeman. 



108 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

He had no rights at the North which a white man was 
bound to respect. Georgia proposed to give him every 
right which the laws extended to the whites. 

Understanding perfectly the absolute sovereignty 
which had been claimed and exercised by the other States 
in this matter Georgia repudiated definitely and finally 
the idea of admitting the Indian to her political family. 
There was no place for him intermediate between the 
slave and the master. He was a weed, indigenous to 
the soil it is true, intended doubtless for a good purpose 
in the economy of nature, but not for a moment to be 
tolerated among the life-giving and health-preserving 
plants of a cultivated garden. Not all the logic nor all 
the rhapsodies of the new generation of humanita- 
rians, who looked to equal political and civil rights 
between the white man and the Indian could convince 
the bold Faxons who won their independence from 
Great Britain that it was their duty to adulterate their 
white blood and sink to a level with the descendants 
of the Castilian of the Southei-n Continent. No Federal 
agent to the Indian tribes could convince them that 
such was their duty. The Indian must go. There had 
been enough said about the noble red man, his happy 
hunting grounds, and how his untutored mind sees God 
in the clouds and hears him in the wind. All that was 
very pretty in poetry ; but in plain prose the Indian was 
a murderous, treacherous savage, who flattened his skull 
between boards and hung brass trinkets from his nostrils, 
who sang the most remarkable noises and beat the 
most discordant tunes on the harshest sorts of instru- 
ments, who traded oil' a league of land for a glass neck- 
lace and wore a fiap around his middle, who stuck fish 
bones through his ears and painted himself like a zebra, 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. . 109 

who jumped about like an idiot in what he called a war 
dance or a corn dance, and lived like the beasts of the 
field, leaving behind him not a trace of the purpose of 
his creation. Georgia was the only one of the original 
States burthened with the presence of this nuisance ; 
and she concluded it was time to devote her soil to 
something better. 

Georgia prosecuted her efforts to obtain from the 
Creeks their consent to removal. A portion of the 
chiefs who represented the Southern Creeks were 
Iriendly to the Georgians. The Upper Creeks, who 
had united with Tecumseh and waged war against the 
United States, had been conquered, and had never 
been recognized as having a voice in treaties or nego- 
tiations with the States or Federal Government. The 
chiefs of the Lower Creeks, representing the nation, 
feigned a treaty of sale at Indian Springs. This 
treaty, despite the objections of the Indian agents, 
was ratified by the United States Senate and signed by 
the President. It thus became, according to the 
theory of Mr. Adams and the party who agreed with 
liim as to the dignity of such treaties, the supreme law 
of the land. 

But even if this Indian Springs treaty had not been 
completed with the only recognized Creek chiefs, and 
ratified by the Government at Washington, the State 
of Georgia had high ground upon which to stand as to 
her abstract right to extend her laws over her own soil, 
whether occupied by whites, Indians or Negroes- 
Under the treaty-making power, the United States 
guaranteed to the Indians the integrity of their terri- 
tory, and held, apart from the treaty-making power, that 
the power to regulate commerce among the Indians and 



110 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

between the United States, was sufficient to establish a 
guardianship over the tribes, represented by an agent 
who was to act as a minister plenipotentiary near the 
Royal Wigwam. These claims appeared to the Geor- 
gians to be fallacious and unwarranted. 

Judge George Walton, an eminent jurist, in his 
charge to the grand jury of Richmond county, in 
regard to the settlement made by General Clarke, 
in 1795, Avithin the Indian reservation, whUe eondemn- 
ing the settlement as an infiaction of Georgia laws, 
had said : 

" Soon after the accession of all the States to the 
" present Federal Constitution, I stated my doubts to a 
" grand jury, also of Wilkes county, as to treaties 
*' with savages being of the same rank as those of civ- 
" ilized nations ; and was inclined to be of the opinion 
" that they ought not to be considered in the list of 
" supreme laws, and of equal efficacy with those in the 
" statute book ; but the construction of the United 
'* States has been otherwise." 

How the tribes of Indians having simply an usu- 
fruct of the woods, and holding; them originally by per- 
mission of the colonies, and afterwards by that of the 
States, could enter into treaties with the Union, and 
those treaties become the supreme law of the land to 
the exclusion of every right of sovereignty of the 
State, was difficult to be understood. If this were the 
law, where would the treaty-power end ? Could a col- 
ony of foreigners enter one of the States, and claiming 
to be a tribe or nation, enter into a treaty with the 
General Government? Could treaties be made with 
wandering tribes of gypsies, and thus be made the 
supreme law of the land ? All of the other original 
States bad dealt with Indians as their subjects, and had 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 11 1 

extinguished their claims without the interference or 
interposition of the Washington authorities. Several 
of the Northern States had extended theu' laws over 
the Indian reservations and incorporated the tribes 
among the citizens. But now the Federal Government 
must entei- upon the soil of Georgia, treat with her 
subjects as though they were independent nations, and 
deny to the Georgia authorities even entrance upon 
their own territory. 

Nor could the people of Georgia understand how a 
power to regulate commerce among the Indian tribes 
could carry with it a power to exclude white traders 
from the Indian country, to establish Federal agencies 
for their Government with the powers of a pro-consul, 
and to regulate all the domestic and municipal affairs 
of the territory. The article of the Constitution which 
gave Congress the power to regulate commerce with 
the Indians, at the same time granted power to regu- 
late commerce with foreign nations and between Stjites. 
It has never been contended except by extreme Feder- 
alists, that the right to regulate commerce between the 
States would justify the United States in excluding 
traders trom one State or another, or to appoint official 
traders throughout a State, to the exclusion of all 
other citizens. Yet this was the power claimed in the 
case of commerce with Indians, and which is practiced 
down to the present day. 

The Georgians contended that, even if then- State 
had not been one of the original colonies, the United 
States would not have had jurisdiction over the vacant 
and unpatented lands within her borders. It was held 
that the Indian was not an occupyer. He was simply 
an overrunner, and had not the faintest claim, except 



112 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

such as Georgia might permit, to the soil upon which 
he hunted. In the matter of vacant lands within the 
limit of a State, the right of the United States to then- 
possession has been often seriously questioned by even 
those States which have been constructed from terri- 
tory undoubtedly possessed by the United States. 
Mississippi, Illinois and Indiana have all contended that 
on the organization of a State and its admission into 
the Union, it entered, in the language of the Act of 
Congress accepting the territorial claim from the States, 
" with the same rights of sovereignty, freedom, and 
" independence as the other States." Could the State 
of Indiana be as independent, or as sovereign as the 
State of Connecticut, if a large part of her terri- 
tory, unlike the territory of Connecticut, remained in 
the possession of the United States? Could the 
United States, owning large bodies of unpatented or 
vacant lands in the heart of a State, set up a govern- 
ment to regulate the same, as independent of that of 
the State, as are the navy yards, the barracks, or the 
forts ? To ask such a question appeared to the sover- 
eign people of the State of Indiana, in 1829, to justify 
an instant and decisive answer in the negative. If, 
then, a question could arise as to the right of the Fed- 
eral Government to retain ownership of vacant lands in 
a State framed from a territory, how much stronger was 
the question when applied to one of the original colo- 
nies, and to an Indian reservation? Georgia con- 
tended that she had absolute dominion over the Indian 
lands, and could, at pleasure, extinguish the Indian 
title by extending to their reservation the municipal 
regulations of the State. The case of Fletcher and 
Peck confii'med this claim, so far as to establish the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONTEDERACY. 113 

doctrine that the Indians are to be considered merely 
occupants. It established, also, as has been seen, the 
doctrine that over the Indian lands which lie within the 
common territory, the United States possess the legal 
title, subject to that occupancy, and with an absolute 
and exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of 
occupancy, either by conquest or purchase. Clearly, 
then, if the United States, by virtue of their sover- 
eignty over the common territory, could extinguish the 
Indian occupancy at pleasure, it followed that Georgia 
had the right to extinguish in like manner the Indian 
claims within her own borders. 

It was better that the central power of the Govern- 
ment, at Washingion, should deal with all the Indian 
tribes. If that power had to deal only with tribes 
outside the States, leaving it to the State authorities to 
deal with those inside, it was clear that in military 
movements there could not be that concert of action 
necessary for prompt defense of an extensive frontier 
against a wily and nomadic enemy. Hence it was that 
Georgia in her patriotic cession to the United States, 
stipulated that the United States should extinguish the 
Indian title as soon as possible. Here was a distinct 
compact between the State and the General Govern- 
ment. Georgia consented for the Federal Government to 
do what she herself might have done, but which she 
well knew could be done more speedily, more satisfac- 
torily, and more peaceably by the powers at Washing- 
ton. In extinguishing the claims herself, the Indian 
would still be within her borders ; the money received 
by him for the cession would be soon spent ; his hunt- 
ing grounds would be filled with white settlers, and 
becoming a vagrant, he would soon be a burden to the 



114 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

State. The United States, in extinguishing the title 
could give him better and more extensive hunting 
grounds beyond the Mississippi, and hence Georgia 
was content to surrender her magnificent territory to 
the United States, provided they would remove the 
Indian at once. In consenting thus to restrict her 
right of soil and her sovereignty, Georgia looked, with 
confidence in the plighted faith of the Union, to the 
prompt removal of the Indians, and the speedy settle- 
ment of the vacant territory. 

It was in 1802 that the cession was made. Twenty 
years had passed away. New States had been organ- 
ized and received into the Union fi'om even beyond the 
Mississippi river, and still the Federal Government, as 
though determined to prevent the development of the 
Gulf States, had not extinguished the Indian titles in 
Georgia, nor in Alabama and Mississippi. Still the 
savages hovered on the Georgia fi'ontier and pressed 
back the step of civilization. It was as though a 
deadly miasma rested upon the brow of the State ; and 
energy, enlightenment and progi'ess held back fi'om 
the contagion. Is it wonderful that Georgia at last 
resolved to do what the United States, after accepting 
her imperial grant, had failed to do ? 

The slavery agitation had begun to raise its head. 
The Missouri question had aroused the Freesoilers to 
active exertions, and growing out of that body of agi- 
tators was a class of humanitarians who believed, or 
affected to believe, in the equahty of all men before the 
law. With them the Caucasian, the Negro and the 
Indian were entitled to the same consideration; and 
they would listen to no argument drawn from the dif- 
ference in origin, habits and circumstances of the races 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 115 

antagonistio to their optimistic theories. While some 
of these men were engaged in advocating the freedom 
of the Negro, others had penetrated the Indian nations, 
and were using every argument and artifice to induce 
them to withhold their consent to a relinquishment of 
their lands. These men contended with the people of 
Georgia that the Indian was a man and brother ; that 
he should not be damned for a skin not colored like 
their own; and that having been once lords of the forest 
and free as the winds, they should be received into the 
political family of the State, endowed with the privi- 
leges of citizenship, and mingled in blood with the 
other races which had visited and populated the land. 
It was cruel, they contended, to treat these innocent 
and simple natives as a lower order of humanity, desti- 
tute of the claims of society, and unfit for alliance with 
the white man. It was brutal to drive them from 
their hunting grounds and transport them to unknown 
wilds far distant from the scenes of their birth. The 
true policy, dictated by reason and humanity, was to 
permit the Indian to retain his native lauds, to force 
him to possess them, not as an usufi'uct held in com- 
mon, subject to the council, but by allodial tenure ; in 
fine, to make him a citizen living on his own farm and 
to extend over him the laws of the State. If he should 
alienate his land and wander out among the whites, 
so much the better, for the bond of tribe would be 
broken. He would sink or rise with the great body of 
citizens of whatever color, and that prejudice which 
would have been arrayed against the tribe, would refuse 
to visit itself against the individual. The French Rev- 
olution had developed les amis des Noirs. Liberty, 
fi:aternity and equality were to cover all classes, coudi- 



116 THE CRADLE OF THE COTifFEDERACY. 

tions and races of the people alike. The Caucasian, 
the Malay, the Indian, the Mongolian, and the Negro 
were all to stand alike — side by side, and hand in hand 
— under the broad banner of a common Republic. Such 
were the views of heavenly philanthropy ; mixed with 
a large quantity of mortal cunning. The humanita- 
rians were generally traders and teachers, and a few 
missionaries from the North. Some of them were 
pious men, but others divided their time in admin- 
istering to the Indian sinner ghostly consolation and 
bad whiskey. The agents were generally men who, 
finding their positions profitable in the way of trade, 
were exceedingly anxious to preserve the autonomy of 
the Indian tribe; and failing in that, to get possession 
of the Indian lands, by having them allotted to the 
simple-minded savages. In all events, they were 
deadly hostile to the removal of those upon whom they 
lived and thrived. 

There were others who believed that the only solu- 
tion of the Indian problem was in absorption of the 
? aboriginees by the whites — men who were true friends 
of Georgia and of undoubted purity of character. Of 
such was William H. Crawford, one of the ablest and 
noblest of Georgia statesmen. As Secretary of War, 
in 1816, it was his opinion, that when every effort 
to introduce among the Indians ideas of separate prop- 
erty, real as well as personal, had failed, the Govern- 
ment should encourage inter-marriage between them 
and the whites. While declaring that the extinction of 
the Indian race was abhorrent to the feelings of an 
enlightened and benevolent nation, it appears that he 
• was willing to extinguish them by contaminating the 
blood of the progressive white man with the imbecility 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 117 

of one of the feeblest of peoples. It does not appear, 
however, that he proposed for the mongrel race to 
which he would have given birth, to be admitted to the 
full rights of citizenship enjoyed by the Anglo-Saxon 
conqueror. 

The thunders of the New England church and ros- 
trum which had agitated the Missouri question on 
behalf of the black man, were now hurled at the head 
of Georgia in behalf of the red man. Petitions to 
Congress were circulated through the New England 
States for signatures, addressed to congregational cler- 
gymen, with instructions to have them filled with as 
many names as could be obtained. These petitions, 
starting fi:om the pulpit, supplicated Congress to pro- 
tect the Indians in the occupancy of their land and the 
civil regulations they might adopt for their own 
guidance, as against the laws of the States of Georgia, 
Alabama and Mississippi. These very Christians were 
aware that among those Indian regulations were many 
which were destructive to peace and order, and abhor- 
rent to virtue. Polygamy was allowed by usage and 
law. A man, overtaking a horse thief, might slay him. 
An assault with intent to murder or rape, was dis- 
missed with a small fine. Any Indian leaving his 
home and offering to emigrate, forfeited all right to his 
property. Any Indian who might enroll his name as 
an emigrant with the United States agent, forfeited his 
citizenship, and any one buying his lands was pun- 
ished with a hundred lashes. If any Indian who had 
enrolled, should dare to remain fifteen days within the 
tribe, he might be slain. These were the regulations 
which the New England clerical politicians besought 
CongTess to sustain as against the beneficent laws of 



118 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Georgia. Circulars signed by women and bidding the 
Congressmen read, "with a view to eternity," also aided 
in these appeals for the preservation of polygamy. 

The same line of argument, the same claim of 
national power, the same straining of constitutional 
grants, the same partisan cries, the same fanatical delu- 
sion, the same incendiary appeals from the pulpit, which 
many years afterwards illustrated another political 
question, were resorted to during John Q. Adams' ad- 
ministration with reference to the sovereignty of a 
State over any and all of its inhabitants. 

The claims of State sovereignty set up by Georgia, 
Alabama and Mississippi in that day were not imagi- 
nary and vain. They were substantial and of supreme 
importance to the very existence of those common- 
wealths. Chief McIntosh and his council of braves, 
representing the Creek Nation, under the usual forms of 
their law ceded their lands in Georgia, by the treaty 
of Indian Springs. The party opposed to the sale 
became violent and appealed to Washington for an an- 
nulment of a treaty which they declared was pro- 
cured by bribery. The administration of James Mon- 
ro?: had ceased, and with it had ceased for a time that 
scrupulous regard for the rights of the States which 
marked the immediate successors of Jefferson. John 
Q DINGY Adams was now President, and the poHcy of 
his administration was to curb the pride of the States^ 
to reduce their governors to the position of sheriffs, 
and to repress the growing empires of the Southwest. 
The power of the South was to be broken, and one of 
the surest means to strangle the incipient giant was to 
leave the Indian tribes as a constant menace to the 
growth and civilization of the Gulf country. There 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 119 

was another consideration which controlled the philos- 
opher of Braintree. The greater the importance and 
dignity with which the Indian might be clothed, the 
greater the probability that antagonisms of race and 
prejudices of color would weaken year by year, and 
finally vanish in a recognition of an universal brother- 
hood. Already the ideal repubhc of Plato, and the 
actual commune of Rousseau were visible in the 
near distance to the radical politicians of 1825. Al- 
ready the foundation was being laid for the erection of 
an imperial edifice, dedicated to an absolute fraternity 
and equality, upon the ruins of the autonomy of the 
States. 



CHAPTER VI. 



The Treaty of Indian Springs — Murder of Mcintosh — 
General Gaines and Governor Troup — Threatened 
Collision of State and Federal Forces — The State 
Sustains Her Position — The Cherolcee Nation — An 
Appeal to the Supreme Court — Its Writ of Error 
Disregarded — The Question of Coercion^ djc, <J&c. 



" When the United States, under the treaty-making power, claimed 
the right to settle with Great Britain the northern boundary of Maine, 
Governor Lincoln, of that State insisted upon the right of Maine to 
assert her own boundary. Fortunately for Governor Lincoln, he 
lived in a favored region ; and his doctrine of State rights and sov- 
ereignty brouglit down no invectives upon his liead, although In 
theory, and in language, too, he did not lag far behind the fiery 
Georgian." 

: Senator John Forsyth, 1831. 

"The European journals, especially the English ones, which bad 
followed the struggle with lively interest, had to listen to many a 
sneering remark about the short-sightedness which, springing from 
their liostility to everything Republican, liad already led them to 
think they saw the United States bathed in the blood of her citizens, 
and the Union shattered forever." 

Von Holst's CoNSTiTUTioNAii History. 

"I entreat you most earnestly, now that it is not too late, to step 
forth, and having exhausted the argument, to stand by your arms." 

Governor Tboup's Mkssagb. 

All Georgia was in a blaze of excitement. The hos- 
tile Creeks declared they would not respect the treaty. 
The State of Georgia took steps at once to make a 
survey of the lands relinquished by the treaty, and to 
throw them upon the market. The Georgians com- 
plained that the agents had excited the Indians to vio- 
late the stipulations of the treaty. The President 
commissioned Colonel Andrews to investigate the com- 



122 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY. 

plaints made against the agents. General Gaines was 
instructed to suppress any hostilities on the part of the 
Indians, and to seek some way by which an understand- 
ing could be arrived at with them. 

General Gaines proceeded to the scene of hostilities, 
and as his intercourse was most closely with the Gov- 
ernment agents, his views of the situation were very 
soon turned against the pretensions of Georgia. He 
reported to his Government that the Indian Springs 
treaty was a fraud. He represented the people of 
Georgia as longing to rob the Indian of his lands, and 
as resorting to the foulest means of cunning and deceit 
to manufacture a treat}'-, plausible on its face, but un- 
just and tyrannical at heart He intimated that McIn- 
TOSH was but an instrument of Governor Troup, and 
that he had been used for the base purpose of giving a 
color of consent for the Creek Nation when ninety-nine 
hundredths of them were utterly opposed to a cession 
of their lands. 

To this it was replied by the people of Georgia that 
it was true they wanted the lands of the Indian, but 
they did not seek to obtain them by robbery. The 
Indian Springs treaty gave the Creeks better and more 
extensive lands in the West. It gave them means of 
transportation and a vast sum of purchase money. 
The Georgians wanted the lands of the Indian to make 
them subserve the purposes of a civilized rather than 
savage lite. This was no robbery. It was simply 
exercising the right of conquest, without imposing a 
single condition of hardship upon the subject. It was 
extending the area of Anglo-Saxon enlightenment and 
progress, and rendering compact and homogeneous the 
power of the republic from the Atlantic to the Iviissis- 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 123 

sippi. They asserted also that McIntosh, the chief of 
that branch of the Creeks which was true to the United 
States in the late war, and which had conquered and 
subdued their enemies, the Red Sticks, alone had the 
right to speak for the Nation. That right had been 
recognized by- the General Government in a letter from 
the Secretary of War, of the 17th March, 1817. In 
conformity to that recognition, McIntosh and the 
friendly chiefs had been in the habit of speaking and 
still spoke for the Creeks. That the Hed Sticks assas- 
sinated the faithful friends of the whites was no reply to 
the force of this argument. They further contended 
that President Monroe had I'ecognized, and the Senate 
had ratified the Indian Springs treaty; that the Georgia 
Legislature, in pursuance of that ratification had en- 
acted a law for the survey and distribution of the ceded 
territory ; that citizens had acquired vested rights 
under this treaty and the laws made in pursuance 
thereof, which were the supreme laws of the land ; and 
that by virtue of the decision of Fletcher aginst Peck, 
those vested rights could not be disturbed, however the 
treaty might have been secured. They contended, 
moreover, that the treaty was secured fanly ; that if 
money was used to bribe the chiefs, it was nothing- 
more than had been done fi'om the discovery of America. 
What John Smith and William Penn could do for a 
few ounces of beads and a dozen or so red blankets, 
had now to be done, in the present advanced state of 
Indian ideas, with a more substantial largess. It 
was denied that the chiefs had been bribed by the 
State. The Governor could pay no money from the 
State treasury unless specially appropriated; no ap- 
propriation had been made for any such purpose ; the 



124 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

contingent fund was barely enough to keep cattle out 
of the capitol grounds and to pay the hire of servants 
about the offices of State ; and finally, the treasury 
of the State was not able to pay one-tenth of the sums 
which the enemies of Georgia had set as the price of 
the treaty. 

The true motive for the ratification of a treaty so 
favorable to the Georgians, might have been found in 
the relationship existing between the Governor of 
Georgia and the great Creek chief George M. Troup 
was born in 1780, at Mcintosh Bluff, on the west bank 
of the Tombigbee river, in what is now the State of 
Alabama. His grandfather was a captain in the royal 
army, and chief of the Mcintosh clan of Scotland. For 
valuable services in Florida, he was rewarded by King 
George with a grant of Mcintosh Bluff and extensive 
lands in Mississippi. This Captain McIntosh had one 
son and one daughter. The son was, like his father, a 
British officer. The daughter married an officer of the 
British army named Troup, while on a visit to Eng- 
land. Upon her return to her father's home. Governor 
Troup was born at Mcintosh Bluff. Captain McIntosh, 
the father of Mrs. Troup, had a brother named Roder- 
ick McIntosh, also an officer in the royal army. He 
was a man of great physical stature and courage, and 
the embodiment of chivalry. He took part with the 
Royalists in the Revolution. His cousins, John and 
Lachlin McIntosh, took part with the Whigs. Rod- 
erick, or " Old Rory," as he was caUed familiarly, took 
to himself a squaw of the Creek Nation, and was the 
father of Chief William McIntosh. The chief partook 
of the characteristics of the McIntosh family. He was 
brave as a lion. His stature was above that of ordi- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 125 

nary men. His intellect, naturally strong, became cul- 
tivated by association with white men of position and 
education. These scions of the McIntosh clan were 
born to command. They were chiefs in Scotland, chiefs 
in the royal and patriot armies, and chiefs in the 
Indian tribes. The near relationship between the Gov- 
ernor and the Indian chief, might have suggested to 
President Adams a reason for the friendly treaty of 
Indian Springs more powerful than bribery. 

The claim of Georgia under the treaty of Indian 
Springs was undisputable. The compact of 1802 
bound the United States, in consideration of the cession 
of a princely domain, to extinguish for Georgia all the 
Indian claims within her borders. When, through 
their agents, the contract of Indian Springs was nego- 
tiated, and the Government had ratified the bargain, the 
right of Georgia became irrevocably vested; the 
authority of the United States was then at an end. 
The power was executed and the Government was func- 
tus officio as to the subject. The United States had 
conferred no right upon Georgia: they had simply 
removed an incumbrance to a pre-existing right, and 
they could not now replace that encumbrance by a new 
contract with the Indians. 

Georgia denied that the Indian Intercourse Act 
applied to this subject. It applied to the intrusion of 
unauthorized individuals, and not to the acts of the 
sovereign State. This was obvious from its terms and 
from the fact that the passport of the Governor of the 
State, equally with that of the President, dispensed 
with some of its penalties. 

That the title of Georgia to the fee simple of Indian 
lands was unquestionable is evidenced by the second 



126 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

article of the agreement and cession wherein, through 
abundant caution on the part of the State, the United 
States "cede to the State of Georgia whatever claim, 
" right or title they may have to the jurisdiction or soil 
" of those lands." If that language meant anything, 
it meant that the United States were debarred from 
questioning the right of Georgia to enter upon her own. 
soil at her own pleasure for the purpose of survey. 
The soil and jurisdiction being in Georgia, it was no 
more lawful for the United States to introduce other 
persons there, than it would have been for them to 
introduce into the settled portions of Georgia a colony 
of free persons of color, of Indians or of white people. 
The utmost allowable to the United States in this res- 
pect was the settlement within the territory of such 
officers as were necessary for the regulation of com- 
merce with the Indians. The United States, never- 
theless, by permission and toleration, even by encour- 
agement, had introduced there from time to time, white 
persons and others who had made settlements, exercised 
ownership over the soil and cultivated . it in the same 
manner as though the United States, and not Georgia, 
possessed the right of soil and jurisdiction. These 
very persons, so illegally occupying the soil of Georgia 
under the protection of the United States, were chieily 
instrumental in preventing the Indians from leaving the 
country. 

Prominent among these disturbers of the peace was 
the United States agent. This person, indebted for his 
lucrative office to the administration, lost no oppor- 
tunity to fortify his present position and to recommend 
his loyalty to the new administration. He not only 
inflamed the Creeks against McIntosh, but went out 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 127 

among the people of Georgia electioneering against 
Troup. The Governor in his next annual message al- 
luded to his conduct, in the following language : 

" I had for the first time come into office when a 
" subject of peculiar delicacy presented itself, and 
" being intimately connected with the independence of 
" the elective franchise (without which it would be in 
" vain for Georgia to claim for herself the attributes 
" of a sovereign State), it was made known to the 
'^ President that on occasion of the election just then 
" terminated, an officer in his employ, bearing a high 
"and dignified commission, and being a citizen of 
" another State, had abandoned his post to mingle in 
" the strifes of that election, had espoused the cause of 
" one of the parties to the prejudice of the other, and 
" by the weight and influence of his office, united with 
" the most enthusiastic ardor, had rendered himself so 
" signally conspicuous, that the chief* magistrate could 
'' not conscientiously forbear, among his first acts, to 
" complain to the executive government of the Union 
" of this outrage upon the most sacred of all the rights 
" of sovereignty. 

The President paid no attention to this remon- 
strance. It was evident that the agent by positive 
instruction or implied consent, was authorized to leave 
his station, assail the Governor of Georgia, and teach 
the Indians that their Great Father at Washington was 
not the fiiend of the Governor of Georgia, nor of those 
Indians who were his alHes. He labored to prevent 
the treaty at Indian Springs, and faihng in that, mis- 
represented it at Washington. All the mischiefs, 
disorders, and heart-burnings, which followed this treaty 
were organized and fostered by this man. In justice 
to him, he should be considered, however, as the instru- 
ment of the administration; for whatever he said or did 
was approved by his principal. No evil report of him 



128 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

would be listened to ; the word of no man taken 
against him; all testimony in his favor was eagerly 
received ; all against him promptly discredited. If one 
of the foreign governments should request another to 
remove its ambassador for language and conduct unbe- 
coming his mission, the request would be instantly 
granted, however much the conduct of the minister 
might be subsequently approved by his government. 
In this case, however, when the Governor of Georgia 
had denounced the agent as an enemy to her interests, 
a fomenter of disturbance, a breaker of treaties, the 
Federal Government disregarded the wish of the State, 
and the agent himself treated it with derision and con- 
tempt. Failing in his effort to defeat the ratification of 
the Indian Springs treaty, this Indian agent, in the 
face of the action of the President and of the Senate, 
returned from Washington and proceeded to agitate for 
its annulment. How could it be annulled ? McIntosh 
was President of the National Council ; he was author- 
ized to make the treaty. Not only was he recognized 
by the Indian nation as the officer to negotiate, but the 
Federal Government had time and again declared that 
he was the only competent authority for that purpose. 
There was only one way to set it aside. It must be 
made to appear that the act of McIntosh was unau- 
thorized. Not by an appeal to usages, customs and 
laws ; but by an appeal to the higher law, the sword, 
or rather the bow and arrow. Independent of the 
treaty, McIntosh and his chiefs had consented that 
Georgia should survey the lands, some months prior to 
the period set for removal. The agent seized upon 
this agreement to array the Indians and the Federal 
Government against the State. The treaty was 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 129 

supreme law, according to the broad Federal idea, now 
that it was ratified ; but as McIntosh's consent to the 
survey was not a part of the treaty, the agent, on that 
ground, advised the Indians to resist the survey. This 
advice, coming from the agent of the Great Father, was 
equivalent to a mandate. McIntosh saw his danger. 
The life of this splendid chief, in whose veins flowed 
the blood of Indian kings and Scottish princes, whose 
breast was adorned with the badge of a general of the 
United States army, who had served gallantly under 
Jackson, and who had been the unflinching, unfailing, 
constant friend of the white man, was now imperilled 
by the cunning machinations of an Indian agent. The 
Red Sticks remembered that it was McIntosh who held 
them in check; although by the interposition of 
his iron hand, he had saved them from the ruin to 
which Tecumseh would certainly have led them. They 
were savages, and needed only an occasion for ven- 
geance. The agent furnished the occasion. They 
notified the Georgia surveyors that they must desist 
from running their lines. To the number of three 
hundred they surrounded the house of McIntosh at 
night, and sent a hundred bullets through the body of 
this defenceless man. The assassins declared to the 
wife of the chief that they were supported and encour- 
aged in theu- murderous mission by the agent. 

The Governor called out the militia to enforce the 
ta-eaty, and to protect the surveyors under the supple- 
mental agreement. Generals Wimberly, Shorter and 
Miller were ordered to hold their divisions in readi- 
ness. 

The President of the United States, at this juncture, 
interferes and commands the survey to cease. Whence 



130 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

came the authority for this virtual annulment of a 
treaty ratified by Congress ? The President had sworn 
to execute the laws, and here he was setting himself 
against what, by his own logic, was one of the supreme 
laws of the land. As a pretext for his interposition he 
alleged that it was made in accordance with the eighth 
article of the treaty which guarantees protection to the 
friendly Indians. Under that guaranty the United 
States passively suffer McIntosh and his friends to be 
murdered ; in the hour of peril no arm is lifted to pro- 
tect or save ; after the commission of the foul deed no 
voice comes from Washington for vengeance. The 
danger past, the chiefs massacreed, their property rav- 
ished, the surviving friends of IMcIntosh in exile in 
Georgia asking bread and protection, after abandoning 
every valuable to the insurgents, the United States now 
step forth with their armed power to defend, under the 
eighth article of the treaty, the so-called friendly Indians 
against their enemies. It might be supposed that the 
enemies to be defended against were the assassins, in 
the employment of .>othleyoholo. No, the Federal 
administration find the enemies contemplated by the 
treaty to be the people of Georgia, at whose firesides 
the friendly Indians were then resting. Could the 
force of ybsurdity go farther? It was supposed that 
the Federal Government at its creation was a govern- 
ment of delegated powers expressly stated, or of powers 
necessarily implied for the support and maintenance of 
those expressly stated. Yet, here, the Government was 
straining the treaty-making power in order to dispose 
of the Indian most effectually and according to what- 
ever policy might suit its pleasure ; it was at the same 
time using the commerce-regulating power to acquh'e 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 131 

possession of the territory of a State and to confine the 
benefit of trading posts to the friends of the agent. 
Worse than all, while denying the validity of a treaty 
which the Senate had approved, and which stood on 
the statute book as one of the supreme laws of the 
land, it was now seeking under a clause of that treaty 
which was intended to protect friendly Indians from 
the violence of hostile Indians, actually to defend the 
unjust pretensions of the hostile Indians who stood 
before them with the blood of the friendly Indians still 
dripping from their hands. The indignation of the 
State was aroused against these alleged usurpations of 
the General Government, and the hills and valleys of 
Georgia, from the mountains to the sea, rang with the 
cry of "' Troup and the Treaty." 

'^rhe man with whom General Gaines was to deal 
upon reaching Georgia, was George M. Troup. It was a 
a case of flint meeting steel. From the time he reached 
his majority, Troup had been in public life as a repre- 
sentative of the people. He supported the claims of 
Jefferson against Adams when a member of the Geor- 
gia Legislature. As Representative in Congress he 
combatted the compromise made by the Federal Legis- 
lature with the Yazoo speculators. As chairman of 
the Committee on Military Aftairs, he was a leading 
spirit in the war of 1812. As Senator in Congress, 
he pleaded for the removal of the Indians. He was 
always active, fervid, and faithful. Every interest of 
his people found in him a stubborn and determined 
advocate. 

General Gaines was received by the people of Geor- 
gia with 2;reat courtesy. While at Milledgeville, he 
informed the Governor that his instructions from Wash- 



132 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

ington were that no survey was to be made until the 
removal of the Indians under the treaty. The only 
point of controversy then existing was the authority 
of the chiefs to permit a survey outside of the letter of 
the treaty. Certainly if the Indians who made the 
treaty did not object, Georgia had a clear right to sur- 
vey her own fee simple. It was a matter with which 
the United States had nothing to do. The reply of 
Troup to this letter was courteous but decided. While 
deploring the vascillating conduct of the administration 
at Washington, he said : " On the part of the govern- 
" ment of Georgia, the will of its highest constitutional 
" authorities has been declared, upon the most solemn 
" deliberation, that the hne shall be run and the survey 
" executed. It is for you, therefore, to bring it to an 
" issue ; it is only for me to repeat that, cost what it 
" will, the hne will be run and the survey effected." 

At the same time the Governor suggested that the 
Georgia commissioners should be present at the coun- 
cil to be held by General Gaines at Broken Arrow, so 
as to mee't and repel any charges or misstatements pre- 
ferred by the agent or the hostile Indians. To this 
General Gaines objected. He was to arrive at the truth 
by an ex parte examination. It appeared as though 
the approaching council was not for the purpose of as- 
certaining facts, but to carry out a poHcy already 
decided upon by President Adams. Upon reaching 
Flint river, General Gaines held a council with leading 
chiefs, and forthwith dispatched to the Governor a cer- 
tificate of two persons of doubtful character to the 
efiect that neither General McIntobii nor the chiefs had 
ever consented to a survey. General Gaines added, in 
a letter, that this certificate " proves that your excel- 



THE C^^AJDLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 133 

" lency has been greatly deceived in supposing that the 
" McIntosh party ever consented to the survey of the 
" ceded territory being connnenced before the time set 
" forth in the treaty for their removal," and that it 
became " his duty to remonstrate against the surveys 
"being commenced until the Indians shall have re- 
" moved, agreeably to the treaty." Down to this time 
not a word had been said as to the illegality or annul- 
ment of the treaty itself On every occasion General 
Gaines advised the Indians to entertain no hope as to 
its rescision. The stopping of the survey was de- 
signed, however, simply as a pretext for the entire ab- 
rogation of the treaty. 

Governor Troup so understood it. General Gaines 
perhaps did not at that time understand the purpose of 
President Adams' cabinet. 

Governor Troup very justly felt aggrieved that 
Georgia was refused an audience at the council ; that 
her two eminent citizens, Campbell and Merriwether 
who had negotiated the treaty r.f Indian Springs, on 
the part of the United States, were cavalierly excluded 
from vindicating their mission ; and now that an ex 
parte examination of, and certificate from, two Indians 
should be set forth as conclusive testimony, without 
application to the Governor of Georgia to know what 
evidence was in his possession to the contrary. 

The Governor replied : " The certificate of Mar- 
" SHALL, no matter how procured, is one of the most 
" daring eflbrts that ever was attempted by malignant 
" villainy to palm a falsehood upon credulity." At that 
very moment the Governor had in his possession the 
agreement of McIntosh to the survey. He oifered to 
make oath to the fact, and concluded his letter as fol- 



134 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

lows : " I very well know from the late events which 
" have transpired under the eyes of the commissioners, 
" that the oath even of a Governor of Georgia may be 
" passed for nothing, and that any vagabond of the 
" Indian country may be put in requisition to discredit 
" him." This was hot language, and barely to be pal- 
liated on the ground of deep popular excitement. 

General . aines responded to this letter, through the 
public press. He tried to sustain the character of the 
two persons who had signed the certificate, and declared 
that the " malignant villainy " was all on the part of 
those who had secured the treaty. As to the question 
ot the Governor's veracity he used this remarkable 
language : " If you will take the trouble to read the 
" newspaper essays with which the presses have been 
" teeming for some years past, you will find that many 
" of the essayists have had the hardihood to refuse 
" credence to the word of their chief magistrate, and 
" yet we have no reason to despair of the Republic." 

To this unmilitary letter Governor Troup responded 
curtly by forbidding the General to have any further 
intercourse with the Georgia government And now 
the Secretary of War, alleging intrigue and deceit in 
the procurement of the treaty, addressed the Governor 
as follows : " I am, therefore, directed by ihe Presi- 
" dent, to sfcite distinctly to your excellency that for 
" the present he will not permit such entry or survey 
" to be made." To this the Governor repHed by saying 
that no Indian treaty had ever been negotiated in better 
faith ; that if there had been corruption in its procure- 
ment, the principles ol the case of Fletcher ;md Peck, 
estopped the United States from annulling it ; and fur- 
thermore that he would advise the Georgia Legislature 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 135 

on its first meeting " to resist any effort which might 
" be made to wrest from the State the territory ac- 
<' quired by that treaty, no matter by what authority 
" that effort be made." Remonstrating against the 
conduct of General Gaines, the Governor wrote to the 
President of the United States, as follows : " In the 
" enclosed gazette you will find another insolent letter, 
"dated the 16th instant, addressed by your agent, 
" Brevet Major General Gaines^ to the chief magis- 
" trate of this State. Having been betrayed by his 
" passions into the most violent excesses, he is pre- 
" sented before you at this moment as your commis- 
"• sioned officer and authorized agent, with a corps of 
" regulars at his heels, attempting to dragoon and over- 
"awe the constituted authorities of an independent 
" Stale, and on the eve of a great election, amid the 
" distractions of party, taking side with the one polit- 
" ical party against the other, and addressing election- 
"eering papers almost weekly to the chief magistrate 
"^ through the public prints, couched in language of con- 
" tumely and insult and defiance, and for which, were 
" I to send him to you in chains I would transgress 
" nothing of the public law." In conclusion the Gov- 
ernor said, " I demand, therefore, as chief magistrate of 
" Georgia, his immediate recall, and his arrest, trial and 
" punishment, under the rules and articles of war." 

The President replied through the Secretary of War 
that he could not accede to the demand for Gainks' 
arrest ; but at the same time sent a letter of rebuke to 
the General. 

Upon the assembling of Congress, President Adams 
rehearsed in his message the events connected with 
the Indian Springs treaty. He said that happily dis- 



136 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

tributed as the sovereign powers of the people of this 
Union have been between their General and State gov- 
ernments, their history has already too often pre- 
sented collisions between these divided authorities with 
regard to the extent of their respective powers. No 
instance, however, had hitherto occurred in which this 
collision had been urged into a conflict of actual force. 
No other case was known to have happened in Avhich 
the application of military force by the Government of 
the Union had been prescribed for the enforcement of 
a law, the violation of which had, within any single 
State, been prescribed by a legislative act of the State. 
In the present instance he held it to be his duty, if the 
State of Georgia still persisted in making a survey of 
the Indian lands, to enforce the law and fulfil the duties 
of the nation by all the force committed for that pur- 
pose to his charge. 

Upon the convening of the General Assembly of 
Georgia, Governor Troup held no less decided language. 
The Committee on Relations with the Federal Govern- 
ment submitted a report in which the complaints of 
Georgia were fairly and forcibly set out. " We have 
" been insulted," they said, "by petty agents; we have 
" been brow-beaten and derided by Indians. Our 
" chief magistrate at home and our Representatives in 
" Congress, while in the public service and under the 
" very eye of the General Government, have been com- 
" polled to brook the insolence of half-breeds ; we have 
" been prevented, nay, ordered to desist from surveying 
" our own lands when no possible harm could ensure, 
" and when, too, the General Government under pre- 
" cisely similar circumstances was carrying on its own 
" surveys among Indians unremoved from recently ac- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEiDERACY. 137 

" quired lands, a privilege heretofore uninterruptedly 
" enjoyed by every new frontier State, and questioned 
" only for the first time in the case of Georgia, one of 
" the original thirteen States ; we have had our Indian 
" allies — those who long defended Georgia from the 
" tomahawk of the very Indians who are now so high in 
" favor — murdered in cold blood, their fiimilies exiled 
" fi'om home, made wanderers and outcasts from the 
" very country which but nine years ago was declared 
" to be exclusively theirs, under the plighted faith and 
" solemnly written guaranty of the General Govern- 
" ment, and all these misfortunes, cruelties and hard- 
" ships, they have been destined to endure from no 
" other cause, as we verily believe, than that of being 
" the unswerving fiiends of Georgia." 

The resolutions of the committee maintained, 1st, 
that Georgia owns exclusively the soil and jurisdiction 
of aU her territory, and with the exception of the right 
to regulate commerce among the Indian tribes, claims 
the right to exercise over any people, white or red, 
within those limits, the authority of her laws ; 2d, that 
threatening a State with an armed force and actually 
stationing troops upon her borders is contrary to the 
spirit and genius of our Government — a fundamental 
principle of which is that the military is subordinate to 
the civil authority ; 3d, that the President's protest 
against the survey is an instance of dictation and Fed- 
eral supremacy unwarranted by any grant of power to 
the General Government. 

In the meantime President Adams went to the length 
of declaring the Indian Springs treaty null and void, 
and proceeded to negotiate a new treaty with certain of 
the hostile Creek chiefs at Washington. By this second 



138 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

treaty the removal of the Creeks would be only partial, 
and the boundary of Georgia somewhat restricted. The 
State protested against this new treaty. A collision 
appeared imminent. The surveyors appointed by the 
General Assembly were ordered to be on the ground by 
a certain day, and at sunrise to commence their work. 
Governor Troup had classified the militia, and ordered 
his generals to hold themselves in readiness to take 
the field. General Gaines was ready with the Federal 
forces to meet those of the State. 

Fortunately, in the army of Gaines were three 
Georgians devoted to their State, and connected with 
some of her most distinguished people: Col. David E. 
Twiggs, Col. John S. McIntosh, and Col. Duncan 
Clinch. Zachary Taylor was Lieutenant-Colonel of 
Clinch's regiment. All of these men were ardently 
Southern. The three Georgians wrote to the President 
tendering their commissions if ordered to take arms 
against Georgia. This letter was sent to Washington 
by a person who had much influence with Mr. Adams ; 
and it is said that the representations made by this 
person as to the temper of the Southern people, and 
particularly of the Federal army officers of Southern 
birth, was such as to induce him to change his policy, 
and to acquiesce in the claims of Georgia, under cover 
of a new treaty. The new treaty was in substance the 
old treaty so far as Georgia was concerned, and it was 
finally confirmed by the Senate — the Georgia Senators 
voting against it; but the State of Georgia, without 
regard to the proceedings at Washington, continued 
the survey and took and held possession of all the lands 
ceded by the Indian Springs treaty. The treaty of 
Washington was simply a pretext to enable the Presi- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 139 

dent to escape from his coercive policy. Its terms were 
never intended to be carried out, and were never re- 
garded by the State, except so for as they conformed 
to the former treaty. 

To cap the climax of the triumph of Governor 
Troup, it was proven that those immaculate friends of 
the red man who had denounced and sought to annul 
the Indian Springs treaty on the ground of bribery and 
corruption, had actually secured the Washington treaty 
by giving bribes to the leading hostile Indians. Mr. 
Benton, in his " Thirty Years in the United States 
" Senate," has given an interesting account of the 
manner in which he made the discovery that the war 
department had agreed to divide one hundred and sixty 
thousand dollars among the murderers of McIntosh, in 
order to induce them to do what they alleged they had 
slain McIntosh for consenting to do. Mr. Benton says: 
" When the President sent in the treaty of January, 
" and after its rejection by the Senate became certain, 
" thereby leaving the Federal Government and Georgia 
" upon the point of colHsion, I urged upon Mr. James 
"Barbour, the Secretary of War (of whose depart- 
" ment the Indian office uas then a branch), the neces- 
'' sity of a supplemental treaty ceding all the Creek 
*' lands in Georgia ; and assured him that with that 
" additional article, the treaty would be ratified and the 
" question settled. The secretary was very willing to 
'' do all this, but said it was impossible — that the chiefs 
" would not agree to it. I recommended to him to 
"make them some presents, so as to overcome their 
" opposition, which he most innocently declined, as it 
''' would savor of bribery. In the meantime it had 
" been communicated to me that the treaty already 



140 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

** made was itself the work of great bribery ; the sum 
" of $160,000 out of $247,000, which it stipulated to 
" the Creek Nation, as a first payment, being a fund for 
" private distribution among the chiefs who negotiated 
" it. Having received this information I felt sure that 
" fear of the rejection of the treaty and the consequent 
"loss of these $ldO,000 to the negotiating chiefs would 
" insure their assent to the supplemental article without 
" the inducement of other presents. I had an inter- 
" view with the leading chiefs, and made known to them 
" the inevitable fact that the Senate would reject the 
"treaty as it stood, but would ratify it with a supple- 
" mental article ceding all their lands in Georgia. With 
" this information they agreed to the additional article, 
" and then the whole was ratified as I have already 
"stated." 

Thus it was that President Adams negotiated a treaty 
with the hostile chiefs, which was the counterpart of 
that made with the fi:iendly chiefs, except that the 
Indians were not to remove from a small part of the 
Georgia territory included in the former treaty. The 
hostile chiefs were bribed to accede to it, and when 
their appetite was whetted for the bribe money, almost 
in their grasp, the bags of gold were held up beyond 
their reach until they had ceded every acre of Georgia 
teriitory. What then ? Were the vshameful terms of 
the compact held good by the high contracting parties ? 
One would suppose there would be honor between briber 
and bribed. Not so in this case. Mr. Benton con- 
tinues the narrative in the most ingenuous manner : 

" But a further work remained behind. It was to 
" balk the fraud of the corrupt distribution of $160,000 
"among a few chiefs; and that was to be done in the 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERACY. 141 

" appropriation bill, and by a clause directing the whole 
" treaty money to be paid to the Nation instead of the 
" chiefs. The case was conniiunicated to the Senate in 
" secret session, and a committee of conference was ap- 
" pointed (Messrs. Benton, Van., uren and Berrien) 
" to agree with the House committee upon the proper 
" clause to be put into the appropriation bill. It was 
'' also communicated to the Secretary of War. He 
" sent in a report from Mr. McKinney, the Indian 
" Bureau clerk, and actual negotiator of the treaty, 
" admitting the flict of the intended private distribu- 
'• tion ; which in fact could not be denied, as I held an 
" original paper showing the names of all the intended 
" recipients with the sum allowed to each, beginning at 
" 120,000 and ranging down to $5,000, and that it 
" was done with his cognizance.." 

The Indian Springs treaty ceded all the Creek lands 
in Georgia, and to the Coosa river in Alabamc- ; but 
the Washington treaty ceded simply the Georgia lands. 
Georgia came out of the controversy with all she had 
ever demanded. It was Alabama that suflered. While 
the Governor of Georgia had exhausted the argument 
and was standing by. his arms, the Governor of Ala- 
bama was content simply to advise the gentle savage 
that to civilize a people from a rude and barbarous con- 
dition they should be removed from the influence of 
the vices and luxuries which prevail in civilized life ; 
and that the provinces farthest removed from the vices, 
refinements and luxuries of Rome made the most solid 
progress in civihzation. In this whole difficulty with 
the Creeks, beyond a simple resolution instructing her 
members in Congress to use their best efforts to procure 
for Alabama the immediate execution of the Indian 
Springs treaty, nothing was done to assert, prosecute 
or defend her rights thereunder. And thus the faii-est 



142 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

part of Alabama remained in the hands of savages for 
twelve years longer. 

Although the Creeks had been removed, and the 
country opened up to civilization between the Oconee and 
Chattahoochee, there yet remained ten thousand Chero- 
kees in Georgia. The Cherokee country of Georgia 
is one of the most fertile, healthful and beautiful on the 
western continent. The Indians were greatly attached 
to it, especially as under the teachings of Jeflerson 
they had adopted many of the methods of civilized 
life. Had the plans of that wise philanthropist been left 
undisturbed, the Indian tribes would eventually have 
become useful c'tizens of the States ; but the desire of 
the Federal party to keep those of this section as a 
breastwork against Southern advance, created recip- 
rocal hostility between the white man and the red man, 
and finally defeated every scheme for their culture. 

The Georgians having overrun the lands of the 
Creek, now turned wistful eyes to the lands of the 
Cherokee. Did the Federal Government have no inten- 
tention to extinguish the Cherokee title in accordance 
with the cession of 1802 ? Twenty-five years had now 
elapsed since that cession, and Georgia witnessed the 
same delay which almost plunged the State into hos- 
tilities with the Federal Government in the case of the 
Creeks. Not only was no step being taken for re- 
moval of the Cherokees, but the poUcy of President 
Adams and his friends appeared more pronounced in 
this case than in the other. Every efibrt was being 
put forth by the administrationto fasten the Cherokees 
to the soil, by instructing them in those peacefiil avo- 
cations which strengthen the attachments of family and 
home. 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDEEACY. 143 

Georgia by a law of December 20, 1828, added all 
of the Cherokee territory lying within her limits to 
certain counties of the State, and extended over it her 
criminal jurisdiction. The object of this law, and of a 
subsequent one passed in the following year, was to 
parcel out the territory of the Cherokees, to subject it 
to the laws of Geoi-gia, to abolish the Cherokee laws, 
to make it murder for a death sentence to be executed 
under Cherokee law, and to authorize the use of the 
Georgia militia in executing all processes over the Cher- 
okee territory. The Cherokees sent a delegation to 
Washington, which presented to the President a protest 
against the encroachments of the Georgians; but Mr. 
Adams, just on the eve of retiring from office, took no 
action in the matter. 

The views of the party opposed to the Adams theory 
of government were well expressed in the first annual 
message of President Jackson. He called the atten- 
tion of Congress to the fact that the Indian tribes had 
lately attempted to erect an independent government 
within the limits of Georgia and Alabama. These 
Ptates claiming to be the only sovereigns within their 
territories, had extended their laws over the Indians, 
and the latter had called upon the United States to in- 
terpose between the tribe and the State. Under these 
circumstances the questjon presented was, whether the 
General Government had a right to sustain the tribe in 
theh pretensions ? The Constitution declares that " no 
" new State shall be formed or erected within the juris- 
" diction of another St;ite " without the consent of its 
Legislature. If the General Government is not per- 
mitted to tolerate the erection of a confederate State 
within the territory of one of the members of the 



144 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Union, against her consent, much less, said President 
Jackson, could it allow a foreign and independent gov- 
ernment to estiiblish itself there. Georgia became a 
member of the confederacy, which resulted in our 
Federal Union, as a sovereign State, always asserting 
her claim to certain Umits, which having been origin- 
ally defined in her colonial charter, and subsequently 
recognized in the treaty of peace, she has ever since 
continued to enjoy, except as they have been circum- 
scribed by her own voluntary transfer of a portion of 
her territory to the United States in the cession of 
1802. Alabama was admitted into the Union on the 
same footing with the original States, with boundaries 
which were prescribed by Congress. There is, said the 
message, no constitutional, conventional, nor legal pro- 
vision which allows them less power over the Indians 
within their borders than is possessed by Maine or 
New York. Would the people of Maine permit the 
Penobscot tribe to erect an independent government 
within their State ? And if they did, would it not be 
the duty of the General Government to aid the State 
in resisting such an an attempt ? Would the people of 
New York permit each renmant of the six nations 
within her borders to declare itself an independent 
people under the protection of the United States? 
Could the Indians establish a separate republic on 
each of their reservations in Ohio ? And if they were 
so disposed, would it be the duty of the Federal Gov- 
crmnent to sustain them? " If," said General Jackson, 
" the principle involved in the obvious answer to these 
" questions be abandoned, it will follow that the objects 
" of this Government are reversed ; and that it has 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 145 

" become a part of its duty to aid in destroying the 
" States which it was established to protect." 

Actuated by this view of the subject, President Jack- 
son, reversing the poUcy of his predecessor, informed 
the Indians inhabiting parts of Georgia and Alabama, 
that theu' attempt to establish an independent govern- 
ment would not be countenanced by the executive of 
the United States, and advised them either to emigrate 
beyond the Mississippi or submit to the laws of the 
State. Instead of bribing the Indian chiefs and going 
through the absurd formality of treating with them as 
independent nations, the President called upon Con- 
gress for the passage of an act to enable him to provide 
for their removal. Upon this proposition the two parties 
arrayed themselves. The Representatives in Congress 
from the Southern States, aided by a few votes from 
the North, succeeded in enacting such a law as the 
President requested. The opposition was led by Mr. 
Frelinghuysen, in the Senate, and with him was found 
nearly all the Northern Senators. 

The Indians, instigated by the half-breeds and mis- 
sionaries who inclined to the Federal party, took counsel 
and legal advice with a view to get the question into 
the Supreme Court of the United States. William 
Wirt, late Attorney General, was retained as their 
counsel. George R. Gilmer was then Goveriior of 
Georgia. As soon as it became evident that the Indian 
Bill, as proposed by the President would become law, 
the Cherokees were persuaded that the right of self- 
government could be secured to them by the power of 
the Supreme Court of the United States, in defiance of 
the legislature of the State and National Government. 
At that time the idea does not appear to have been en- 



146 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

tertained by Wirt or by his cotemporaries of the Fed- 
eral school of pontics, that in the event the Supreme 
Court might show an inclination to interfere, that august 
tribunal might be brought to terms by an act of Con- 
gress curtaiUng its powers or increasing its members. 

Judge A. S. Clayton of Georgia, in whose circuit 
the Indian counties lay, in his charge to the grand 
jury, assured the Indians of protection from the State, 
warned them against the intermeddling agents and mis- 
sionaries who used their influence improperly in govern- 
mental matters, and predicted the futility of applying 
for relief to the Supreme Court. With respect to those 
who had counselled resistance to the State law, he said : 
" Meetings have been held in all directions to express 
" opinions on the conduct of Georgia, and of Georgia 
"alone," when her adjoining sister States had safely done 
precisely the same thing ; and which she and they had 
done in the rightful exercise of their IState sovereignty. 
The judge showed that one of those intrusive philan- 
thropists had endeavored to enlist European sympathy 
in behalf of the Cherokees ; and quoted from the ad- 
dress of the Reverend Mr. Milner of New York, to 
the Foreign Missionary Society of London : " That 
" if the cause of the negroes in the West Indies was 
" interesting to that auditory — and deeply interesting 
•' it ought to be — it the population in Ireland, groaning 
" beneath the degradation of superstition, excited their 
'* sympathies, he trusted the Indians of North America 
" would also be considered as the objects of their Christian 
" regards. He was grieved, however, to state that there 
were those in America who acted towards them in a 
different spirit ; and he lamented to say, at this very 
piQuient, the State of Georgia was seeking to subjugate 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 147 

"and destroy the liberties both of the Creeks and 
" Cherokees." Thus was it sought to defame a 
Southern State which was simply seeking to extend its 
laws throughout its limits as had been done by every 
Nort'iern and Eastern State which had dealt with the 
Indians within its borders. And so ignorant was 
this pseudo philanthropist of what he was discussing 
that he seemed not to know that the Creeks, at the 
time he was speaking, had been gone five years from 
Georgia. Instead of the Cherokees, who still remained, 
being deprived of their liberties, they were offered a 
large price for their lands if they chose to remove 
across the Mississippi. If they preferred to remain 
they were simply to be subjected to the same laws with 
the whites. With respect to the Supreme Court, Judge 
Clayton declared that he should pay no attention to its 
mandate — holding no writ of error to lie from the Su- 
preme Court of the United States to his State court, 
but would execute the sentence of the law, whatever it 
might be, in defiance of the Supreme Court. This bold 
position of the Georgia judge was maintained with the 
same firmness it was enunciated. 

A Cherokee half-breed, George Tassels, instigated 
by the political opposition to the poHcy of Jackson, 
committed a homicide in resisting the execution of the 
Georgia law. He was tried for murder, condemned, 
and sentenced to be executed on a certain day. A 
writ of error to bring the case before the United Stfites 
Supreme Court was obtained, and Mr. Wirt endeavored 
to secure the consent of Governor Gilmer that the 
whole question should rest upon an agreed statement of 
facts. Governor Gilmer replied : " Your suggestion 
*' that it would be convenient and satisfactory if youi" 



148 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" self, the Indians and the Governor could make up a 
" law case to be submitted to the Supreme Court for 
" the determination of the question whether the Legis- 
"lature of Georgia has competent authority to pass 
" laws for the government of the Indians residing 
" within its limits, however courteous the manner and 
'' conciliatory the phraseology, cannot but be considered 
" exceedingly disrespectfiil to the government of this 
" State. No one knows better than yourself that the 
" Governor would grossly violate his duty and exctjed 
-' his authority by complying with such a suggestion, 
" and that both the letter and the spmt of the power*^ 
" conferred by the Constitution upon the Supreme Court 
"•forbid its adjudging such a case." 

The proceedings before the United States Supreme 
Court are of supreme interest when considered in rela- 
tion to the alleged right of the Federal Government to 
coerce a State. Mr. Wirt, in his application for an 
injunction to restrain the State, discussed the question 
with great ardor and ability. His argument has been 
pronounced the most brilliant of his life. " The great 
^- interest excited by the controversy," says a writer in 
the North American Review, '' was naturally to be 
" expected from the novelty of the case, the dignity of 
" the parties, and the high importance of the principles 
" in question. The scene wore, in some degrees, the 
" imposing majesty of those ancient debates, in which 
" the gTeat father of Roman eloquence sustained before 
"the senate the rights of aUied and dependent, but 
" sovereign princes, who had found themselves com- 
" polled to seek for protection and redress from the 
"justice of the mighty Republic." . . iss Martineau, 
in her graceful description of the Court, alludes to the 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 149 

scene — " I have watched the assemblance when the 
" Chief Justice was ddivering a judgment, the three 
"judges on either hand gazing at him more Hke 
" learners than associates, Webster standing firm as a 
" rock, his large, deep set eyes wide awake, his lips 
" compressed, and his whole countenance in that intent 
" stillness which easily fixes the eye of the stranger ; 
" Clay, leaning against the desk in an attitude, whose 
" grace contrasts strangely with the slovenly make of 
" his dress, his snuff box for the moment unopened in 
" his hand, his small gray eye and placid half-smile, 
" conveying an expression of pleasure which redeems 
" his face from its usual unaccountable commonness; 
" the Attorney General, his fingers playing among his 
" papers, his quick black eye, and thin, tremulous lips 
" for once fixed, his small face pale with thought, con- 
" trasting remarkably with the other two. These men, 
" absorbed in what they are listening to, thinking 
" neither of themselves nor of each other, while they 
" are watched by the group of idlers and listeners 
" around them : the newspaper corps, the dark Chero- 
" kee chiefs, the stragglers from the far West, the gay 
" ladies in their waving plumes, and the members of 
" either House that have stepped in to listen ; all these 
"' I have seen constitute one silent assemblage, while 
"the mild voice of the aged Chief Justice sounded 
" through the Court." 

At the outset of the case, was suggested the diffi- 
culty as to how the injunction was to be enforced in 
the event it should be awarded and the State should 
refuse to obey. " It will be time enough," said Mr. 
Wirt, " to meet the question when it shall arise." 

Chief Justice Marshall, ever ambitious to make the 



150 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

Supreme Court the arbiter of all constitutional ques- 
tions, and by the force of former political association 
ever leaning to the views of the Federal party, held 
that the Court had full jurisdiction to pronounce upon 
the validity of the Georgia laws. The Court declared 
the Cherokee Nation a distinct community, occupying 
its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, 
and in which the laws of Georgia could have no force. 
It declared void the act of Georgia, under which the 
plaintiff in error was prosecuted, that the judgment of 
the State Court was a nullity, and that the plaintitf 
"was entitled to the protection of the Constitution, 
" laws and treaties of his country." 

Thereupon arose the question, how was this decision 
to be enforced ? Could the United States coerce a 
State? 

The State of Georgia treated the decision as a 
nullity. No further action was taken by the Supreme 
Court ; no effort made to enforce its decision. Chief 
Justice Marshall and his associates, by non-action, 
tacitly admitted that the United States had no consti- 
tutional power to enforce a decision against a sovereign 
State. 

The State of Georgia did not appear as a party to 
these proceedings. The Chief Justice cited the State 
by writ of error " to show cause, if any there be, why 
"the judgment [of the State Court] should not be 
"corrected." The Governor laid the writ before the 
General Assembly, saying that he would not regard 
commands of the Federal Court which interfered with 
the constitutional jurisdiction of the State, and would 
oppose any attempt to execute them. The General 
Assembly sustained the Governor, and adopted a series 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 151 

of resolutions to the effect that the action of the Chief 
Justice of the United States was " a flagrant violation 
" of the rights of the State ; " that the Governor 
should pay no attention to the mandate ; but that he 
was bound " to resist and repel any and every inva- 
" sion, from whatever quarter, upon the administration 
" of the criminal laws " of the State, with all the " force 
" and means " entrusted to him by the laws of Georgia. 
They declared that " the v^tate of Georgia will nevei- so 
" far compromise her sovereignty as an independent 
" State, as to become a party to a case sought to be 
" made before the Supreme Court of the United States 
*' by the writ in question," and that the Governor 
should acquaint the sheriff of Hall county with these 
resolutions, as far as was necessary to ensure the fiill 
execution of the laws in the case of George Tassels. 
The sentence of the State court was . executed by the 
hanging of Tassels, Dec. 28, 1830. 

Depending upon a statement of G. N. Briggs of 
Massachusetts, who was at the time a member of Con- 
gress, Greeley, in "The American Conflict," vol. I, p. 
106, relates that President Jackson said : '* John 
" Marshafl has made his decision ; now let him enforce 
" it ! " 

In accordance with the Georgia law of December 22, 
J 830, a missionary named Worcester, with other white 
persons who persisted in disobeying the statute, was 
sentenced to four years' imprisonment at hard labor. 
Worcester took the case before the Supreme Court of 
the United States, and the State of Georgia was once 
more cited to appear at Washington, before the Federal 
judiciary. Governor Lumpkin informed the Legislature 
that he would present a "determined resistance " to 



152 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

such " uaprpation." The Supreme Court once -more 
attempted to annul the action of the State, but the 
State court refused to grant a writ of habeas corpus, 
and paid no attention to the decision. No effort was 
ever made by the Federal Government to enforce the 
decision. 

The Government at Washington and the country at 
large, by acquiescing in the faihn^e of the Federal Gov- 
ernment to carry out the mandate of the Federal court, 
admitted that Georgia had the right to extinguish '^.ly 
title to her lands remaining in the occupancy of the 
savages, that she was right in refusing to appear at the 
bar of the Supreme Court, and right in executing her 
statutes in these cases, notwithstanding interference 
from the Federal Government. In the debate over the 
Force Bill, in 1833, two years later than the events 
here referred to, we find the verdict of the people ex- 
pressed in the language of Senator Miller of South 
Carolina. "No reproof of her [Georgia's] refractory 
" spirit was heard ; on the contrary, a learned review of 
" the decision came out attributed to executive coun- 
'' tenance and favor." It is to be borne in mind that 
the executive alluded to was the same who one year 
later, proposed at a public dinner at Washington, the 
toast, " The Federal Union, it must be preserved." 



CH A.I>TER V^II. 



South Carolina and the Tariff — Continued Contest between 
the Agricultural and Commercial States — Calhoun and 
NnUification — The Force Bill and the RUjht of Coer- 
cion — Inconsistency of\ President Jachson — Calhounh- 
Victory Webster Retires from the Battle — Real Causes 
for the Proclamatio7i, &c.^ djc. 



" Why should we fetter commerce ? If a man is In chains, he droops 
and bows to the earth, because his spirits are broken ; but let hlin twist 
the fetters from his legs and he will stand erect. Fetter not commerce ! 
Lefher be as free as tlie air. She will range the whole creation, and re- 
turn on the four winds of Heaven, to bless the innd with plenty." 

Patrick Henry. 

"To the Northern politician, who, during Monroe's administration 
recalled the past annals of the republic, the future was without hope. 
Incited by his devotion to Unionism, he had tried to strengthen tlie cen- 
tral power at Washington, but liad been defeated on the occasion of the 
Alien and Sedition Acts; he had looked with disfavor upon the free 
navigation of the Mississippi, but ths river had been bought; he was dis- 
inclined to territorial expansion, but Louisiana had been purchased ; he 
had resisted the admi.«sion of new States from that purchase, but one 
after another, they were coming in." 

Draper's Civil, War, vol. I, p. 360. 



While the difficulty between Georgia and the Federal 
Government was still pending, the people of the United 
States, by a large majority, threw off the remaining 
vestiges of F.ederalism as represented by Adams, and 
elected Andrew Jackson to the Presidency by an elec- 
toral vote of one hundred and eighty-three, as against 
eighty- three for Adams. It is worthy of observation, 
however, that the victory of Jackson was not strictly 
upon principle. In New iork, Pennsylvania, and in 
the West generally, Jackson was supported as the firm 



154 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

friend of the protective tariff, and of internal improve- 
ments by the General Government; whereas, in the 
South he was zealously sustained by those who denied 
the right and constitutionality of those things, as being 
the iriend of those Southern interests which were 
believed by them to be seriously injured by the laws 
protecting home industry. 

The new President's inaugural address was extremely 
vague upon the question of the tariff. His first annual 
message was not much more explicit. It fiivored a 
modification of the protective features of the tariff, but 
at the same time suggested that a desire for successful 
competition of American products with foreign should 
furnish " the general rule to be applied in graduating 
" the duties." The friends of Calhoun lost confidence 
in the purpose of President Jackson to carry out the 
free trade views upon which they had voted for him. 

The first protective tariff, that of 181G, was advo- 
cated by Calhoun and opposed by Webster. It was at 
that time behoved that the South would establish fiic- 
tories, and that the building of this Chinese wall around 
N(!W England would destroy her carrying trade. The 
question of principle was lost sight of; and policy alone 
attached Calhoun to a doctrine which he afterwards 
condemned, and caused Webster to advocate free trade, 
which his section a few years later repudiated. Between 
181G and 1824, New England took advantage of the 
tarifi' and invested largely in factories. In 1824 the 
protective system was championed by Henry Clay, and 
still resisted by Daniel Webster, Virginia, the Caro- 
linas, Georgia and the Southwest were unanimous 
against it, while Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and 
Keutucky were unanimous for it. Massachusetts, 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 155 

under the lead of Webster, gave all her votes except 
one against it. It was not until four years later that 
Webster gave in his adhesion to the American system 
of Clay. 

In 1828 the question had assumed a most serious 
sectional aspect. When Jefterson was President, the 
maritime States of the North had bitterly opposed the 
embargo laws, which virtually kept their ships rotting 
at the wharves. They boldly declared that the enforce- 
ment of the embargo was adequate cause for dissolution 
of the Union. But now, in 1828, and in 1830, they 
fjivored a protective tariff, which operated upon the agri- 
cultural States as the embargo had upon the maritime 
States. Its operation was claimed to be even more 
severe. No one pretended that it was simply a tariflf 
for revenue. It was intended' to protect certain 
branches of industry by paying them a bonus wrung 
from other branches, and especially from the agricul- 
tural labor of the South. It was spoken of as a Bill 
of Abominations. All that the South asked was that 
she might buy her cotton gins, her ploughs, her hoes, 
and her clothing at moderate and just prices, and not 
be compelled to pay a subsidy to Massachusetts for the 
one article, or to Pennsylvania for another. African 
slavery had made the South purely agricultural, and 
all agricultural States naturally and necessarily favor 
free trade. Perhaps under other circumstances, how- 
ever violative of the spirit of the Constitution, the 
South might have found a protective tariff an incentive 
to manufactories of iron in Tennessee, Georgia, Vir- 
ginia and Alabama, of cotton goods in nearly all of 
the Atlantic and Gulf States south of the Chesapeake, 
and of leathern goods in the vast pine forests of the 



156 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

coast;, as it was certainly an incentive to the produc- 
tion of sugar in Louisiana. But while agriculture was 
the sole occupation of the Southern people, the tarifl* 
fell upon the cotton States with crushing burthen. 
With one-third of the population they paid two-thirds 
of the revenue of the Union. 

The opening of richer cotton fields in Alabama had 
diminished the value of land in South Carolina, and the 
commercial importance of Charleston had receded, it 
was said, before the blighting eflects of the tarilf. 
Within a few years past a thriving foreign commerce 
had been carried on direct with Europe, but now the 
forty ships which had sought the harbor of Charleston 
had all disappeared. The ship yards had been broken 
up ; the merchants had become bankrupt or had 
sought other pursuits ; mechanics were thrown out of 
employment, and the very streets were assuming the 
silence of inactivity. Said Mr. Hay he : ''If we fly 
" from the city to the country, what do we there behold? 
" fields abandoned ; the hospitable mansions of our 
" fathers deserted ; agriculture drooping ; our slaves, 
" like their masters, working harder and faring worse ; 
" the planter striving with unavailable efforts to avert 
" the ruin that is before him." 

If there had been a necessity for such protection t^v 
the interests of one branch of industry at the expense 
of another, the case would not have appeared so bad ; 
but it was shown from the custom-house books that- 
many species of our manufactures, and especially those 
of cotton, were going abroad to distant countries, and 
sustaining themselves there against all competition and 
beyond the fostering care of our laws. The only effect 
of protective duties in such cases was clearly to cut off 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 157 

importations, to create a monopoly at home, and to en- 
able manufacturers to sell their goods higher to their 
own fellow-citizens of the South who produced the raw 
material than to the distant inhabitants of the Medi- 
terranean and of India. 

John C. Calhoun saw very plainly that the question 
of free trade was that which, keeping the more danger- 
ous question of slavery in the back ground, was des- 
tined to divide the republic into two great parties. 
Upon this question he could rally the agricultural 
States to his standard, and would have the advantage 
of fighting on a higher level than he would be com- 
pelled to stand upon were the issue simply upon slavery. 
He had given up all hope that President Jackson w,ould 
aid him in destroying the protective system by ordinary 
parliamentary measures. On July 26, 1831, at Fort 
Hill, he issued an address to the people of South Car- 
ohna, setting forth the declaration of the Virginia reso- 
lutions and asserting the right of interposition, " be it 
" called as it may, State right, veto, nullification or by 
"any other name." In 1882 the tariff had received 
the sanction of the President. Calhoun in a letter 
to Governor Hamilton of South Carolina reviewed the 
situation quite elaborately and announced the doctrine 
of nuUification. '" Nullification," said he, " is the great 
" conservative principle of the Union." " Not a pro- 
'' vision can be found in the Constitution authorizing 
" the General Government to exercise any control over 
"' a State by force, by veto, by judicial process, or in 
" any other form — a most important omission, designed 
" and not accidental " That Calhoun regarded nullifi- 
cation as a peaceful remedy appears throughout his 
letter. The calling out of the military power of the 



158 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Union, he said, would be useless because no opponents 
would be found, for '' it would be * * * a con- 
" flict of moral, not physical force.'" He insisted that 
the legal relation between the Federal and State gov- 
ernments would not be broken up. 

He denied the right of a State Legislature to nullify 
a Fedeml law. It must be done by a State convention. 
A motion was made in the South Carolina Legislature 
to call a State convention, but failed of the regular two- 
thu'ds vote. Another effort was more successful, and a 
convention was called to meet at Columbia, November 
18th. A nullification ordinance was adopted Novem- 
ber 24th, declaring that the tariff of May 19, 828, 
and that of July 2-i, 1832, were null and void, and 
instructing the Legislature to pass laws necessary for 
enforcing the ordinance, after the first day of February 
next, for preventing the collection of duties imposed by 
the nullified laws. The convention announced that 
every measure of coercion on the part of the Federal 
Government would be regarded " as inconsistent with 
" the longer continuance of South (jaroHna in the 
" Union." The convention then adjourned until March 
to await the action of Congress. 

There were many leading men of the South, who, 
while sympathizing with those who complained of the 
obnoxious tariff and not denying the right of a State 
in the ultimate resort to judge of the measure of its 
grievances and the mode of redress, nevertheless held 
that South Carolina had placed herself in a wrong atti- 
tude by passing her ordinance at a time when the Pres- 
idential election, two weeks before, had gone over- 
whelminii;ly against Clay's x\merican system, and 
when a large majority of opponents of the odious tariff 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 159 

had been returned to Congress under a pledge for its 
repeal or modification. A majority of the people of 
the South believed that the case was not such an one 
as was described in the resolutions of '98, and in those 
of the Hartford convention, as a " deliberate, palpable 
" and dangerous " exercise of powers not granted by 
the compact. It was not a deliberate act of the United 
States ; because after full debate in Congress, and an 
appeal to the country in a Presidential canvass in which 
the tariff was a leading question, the verdict of the 
people of the United State had been against it. It was 
not a dangerous act because the verdict of the election 
being adverse, it was now certain that its dangerous 
and oppressive features would be removed. Recog- 
nizing the fact that the Constitution itself was a bundle 
of compromises, these patriotic citizens of the South 
were wiUing to endure all burdens of Government which 
were not absolutely too grievous to be borne and without 
remedy, rather than rush to unknown evils beyond the 
confines of the Federal system. They believed in an 
appeal to the judiciary whenever the question could be 
reached in that way ; if it was a question which could 
not be so reached, they appealed to the people at the 
next election. Hence they now protested against the 
hasty action of South Carolina. 

Another large body of Southern people held that 
the remedy adopted by South Carolina was not the 
proper one. To secede from the Union was one thing ; 
to remain in the Union and nullify a Federal law was 
quite another thing. Nullification would make the 
Union " a rope of sand," and place her precisely in 
the position she occupied under the articles of confed- 
eration when she had power to enact laws but no power 



160 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

to enforce obedience to them. The Constitution was 
clearly intended to enable the Federal Government to 
enforce obedience to hei" laws within those States which 
remained in the Union. To escape such laws, the rem- 
edy, as was asserted by these opponents of nullification, 
was by secession from the Union. 

It is interesting to know that many of these South- 
ern opponents of the principle of nullification were 
those who but a few years previous had stood by Gov- 
ernors Troup and Gilmer h\ their deteimined and suc- 
cessful nullification of the Indian treaties. The appar- 
ent inconsistency of their course is explained by refer- 
ence to the distinction which they made between a 
Federal law of merely local operation which might be 
met by the local authorities without afiecting the gen- 
eral interests of the Union, and a Federal law of gen- 
eral operation affecting all the States. The former 
could be opposed, they said, by Stiite action within the 
Union; the latter could be met only by separation from 
the Union. While the Georgian, however, could con- 
sistently deny nullification as a remedy, in the case of 
the tarifij the New Englander who had advocated nul- 
lification of the embargo law, and of the acts declar- 
ing war against Great Britain, was morally estopped 
from such denial. 

There was still another class of Southern men who 
held that the protective tariff was not only not un- 
constitutional and dangerous to the States, but actually 
within the scope of the Constitution, and conducive to 
the prosperity of the whole country. This class of 
men were n merous throughout the West, powerful in 
Louisiana and strong throughout the Gulf States. 
When -the policy of protection was first broached, and 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 161 

the discriminating tariff of 1816 enacted, New England 
denounced it as unjust and oppressive, and the South 
advocated it almost as a unit. As has been already 
mentioned, Calhoun was then for protection, and Web- 
ster was for free trade. The South looked to the day 
when she might build up factories in her cotton fields ; 
but New England feared that a protective tariff would 
lessen the imported cargoes which fostered her ship- 
ping. Public sentiment was not aroused upon this 
question until 1824, and not until then was a doubt 
expressed as to the constitutionality of protection. 
Four years later, New England had changed her invest- 
ments from the West India shipping trade into factories, 
and was beginning to reap a golden harvest. The 
Western States, also, were giving birth to villages and 
cities where furnaces and water-wheels were in perpet- 
ual motion. The hemp factories of Kentucky and 
Missouri were supplying bagging and rope to the 
Cotton States, and Louisiana was furnishing the whole 
Union with sugar. With an exception here and there, 
the American system had been sustained from 1820 to 
1832 by the New England States, by those north and 
west of the Alleghanies, and by the State of Louisiana. 
It is not surprising that it had ardent supporters 
among those intellects at the South, who, looking into 
the future, desired to diversify her industries and make 
her self-supporting in peace and in war. It was for 
these reasons that a large class at the South opposed 
the nuUification act of South Carolina as hasty, incon- 
siderate and illegal. 

President Jackson issued his proclamation on the 
11th of December, 1832. Congress was then in ses- 
sion. In his annual message, the President had 



162 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

expressed an opinion that the proceedings in South 
CaroUna would come to an end if the tariff were 
simply put upon a revenue footing. South Carohna 
still persisting in her course, notwithstanding the favor- 
able disposition of the administration and of Congress, 
the ^-revenue collection," or " force bill," as it was 
called, was introduced into Congress, January 31st, 
1833, giving the President full power to meet the acts 
of the nullification legislature. The whole country was 
plunged into the wildest excitement. Those at the 
South v\'ho protested against the course of South Caro- 
lina, protested as strongly against the use of force 
towards her by the Federal Government. Upon this 
bill arose the great debate between Calhoun and Web- 
ster. Has the Federal Government the right to coerce 
a sovereign State into obedience to a law which she 
holds to be unconstitutional and oppressive? Cur 
wisest statesmen had often warned their countrymen, in 
the most solemn terms, that our institutions could not 
be preserved by force, and could only endure whilst 
concord of feeling and a proper respect by one section 
for the rights of another should be maintained. Madi- 
son, in this spirit, had observed in the Federal Conven- 
tion that, "any Government for the United States, 
" formed upon the supposed practicability of using 
'' force against the unconstitutional proceedings of the 
" States, would prove as visionary and fallacious as the 
" government of [the old] Congress." Senator Tyler 
of Virginia, well expressed the sentiment of the whole 
South when he said: "Yes, sir, the Federal Union 
^'must be preserved. But how? Will you seek to 
" preserve it by force ? WDl you seek to appease the 
"angiy spirit of discord by an oblation of blood? 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 163 

'•'' Suppose that the proud and haughty spirit of South 
" Carolina should not bend to your high edicts in 
" token of fealty ; th^t you make war upon her ; hang 
" her Governor, her legislators and her judges, as trai- 
" tors, and reduce her to the condition of a conquered 
" province^' — have you preserved the Union ? This 
" Union consists of twenty-four States ; would you 
" have preserved the Union by striking out one of the 
" States — one of the old thirteen ? Gentlemen had 
" boasted of the flag of our country, with its thirteen 
" stars. When the light of one of these stars shall 
" have been extinguished, will the flag wave over us^ 
" under which our fathers fought ? If we are to go on 
" striking out star after star, what will finally remain 
" but a central and burning sun, blighting and destroy- 
" ing every germ of liberty ? The flag which I wish 
" to wave over me, is that flag which floated in triumph 
" at Saratoga and Yorktown. It bore upon it thirteen 
" stars, of which South Garolina was one. Sir, there is 
" a great difference between preserving the Union and 
" preserving the Government ; the Union may be anni- 
" hilated, yet Government preserved ; but^ under such 
" a Government, no man ought to desire to live." 

This idea of Mr. Tyler, for the first time advanced 
in the American Senate, that the coercion of a State 
would leave it at the feet of the Federal Government 
as a conquered province, was scouted by those Senators 
who sustained the bill. Mr. Benton speaks of his lan- 
guage as " vituperative." Mr. Webster at aU times 
declared that whatever might be the coercion employed 
by the Federal Government, it could not operate upon 
the State,' but would simply preserve the peace among 
the people of the State, and prevent their interference 



104 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

with the regular process of an act of Congress. Thus 
far only, declared the FederaUsts, could the force bill 
no. The Federal Government could no more overthrow 
and destroy the State, than the State could nullify an 
act of Congress. 

Affairs were in a critical state, and the whole 
Southern people undoubtedly stood ready in the event 
of hostilities between South Carolina and the United 
States to array themselves with the former. In this 
crisis, Virginia delegated Benjamin Watkins Leigh, as 
commissioner to intercede with South Carolina and to 
urge her either to rescind her ordinance or to postpone 
action until the close of the session of Congress. His 
mission was successful. In view of the probable reduc- 
tion of the tariff to a revenue standard, action upon her 
ordinance was postponed from February 1st to March 
4th. It was then that Clay offered his compromise 
measure, securing adequate protection for nine years, 
and less protection beyond that term. The manufac- 
turers denounced him, as having yielded to a storm 
which in a few years would sweep protection away en- 
tirely; and his Northern supporters fell fi'om him in 
multitudes. It was said to him that by compromising 
protection he had forfeited his chances for the Presi- 
dency. " I would rather be right than be President," 
replied the patriot. While Webster, proud of the power 
of the opulent North, and impatient of what he held to 
be the factious disturbance of ambitious politicians, 
refused to be a party to the compromise, Clay re- 
membered that the Union itself was, a compromise and 
that no document, like the Constitution, could be so 
perfect, that a resort to mutual concessions might be 
discarded when questions of conflicting jurisdiction 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONEEDERACT. 165 

arise between the State and Federal Government. To 
the mind of this great man it was clear that it was 
better to solve political questions by compromises which 
endangered no great interest and whieh applied to their 
cure the soothing influence of time, than to resort to 
civil war with its waste of treasure and blood, its dis- 
tortion of principles, and the bitter seed it would sow 
for generation after generation. 

Referring to the spirit of that day, the attitude of 
South Carolina finds an apology in the temper of the 
North. While she believed that the protective tariff' 
was dangerous ' to the Union and oppressive to her 
people, and that its retention would justify resistence, 
her enemies on the other hand believed that the aboli- 
tion of protection would be ruinous to the welfare of 
the Union and would justify its dissolution. The 
threats of South Carolina were met by counter threats 
from the manufacturing regions. If treason lurked in 
the oratory of Calhoun, and in the proclamations of 
Hayne, it showed itself fully to view in the language of 
Northern politicians. Clay had distinctly declared 
that danger to the Union was more to be feared from a 
surrender of the American system than from its reten- 
tion. Of the friends of that system he said : " Let 
" them feel that a foreign system is to predominate, 
" and the sources of their subsistence and comfort 
" dried up ; let New England, the West and the middle 
" States, all feel that they too are the victims of a mis- 
" taken policy, and let these vast portions of our 
" country despair of any favorable change, and then 
" indeed might we tremble for the continuance mid 
" safety of this Union.'''' 

John M. Clayton, Senator from Delaware, said that 



166 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERAOY. 

" the Government cannot he kevt together if the j)rinci- 
^^ pie of protection tvere to he discarded in our folicy^'' 
and that he " would pause before he surrendered that 
" principle, even to save the Union.'''' 

Thus it was that whereas South CaroUna was ready 
to resist the Federal Government in the levying of im- 
posts for what she believed to be an unconstitutional 
object, her defamers were ready to dissolve the Union 
if the imposts were simply directed towards raising- 
revenue. The cause for which South Carolina would 
fight was a violation of the Constitution ; the cause for 
which her enemies would fight was not a violation of 
the Constitution, but simply a curtailment of their 
extravagant profits in business. 

That profound student, Von Hoist, in his able work 
on the Constitutional History of the United States, 
has not failed to observe the inconsistency between the 
action of President Jackson towards South Carolina 
and that towards Georgia, only a few years previous. 
'' Why was that now so great a crime," he asks, " upon 
" which the President then looked with scarcely con- 
'* cealed satisfaction ? Did not his oath of office im- 
" pose the same duties upon him then ? Was the 
" supremacy of a tarift* law of a higher sort than that 
'' of treaties ? Why must a sovereign State now most 
" obediently entreat the United Sfcites Supreme Court 
" to inform it of the limits of its rights, when, then, 
" a State no more sovereign could angrily reject the 
" decision of that Court, made in all form, as a revolt- 
" ing assumption, without receiving even a warning re- 
" proof from President or Congress ? South Carolina 
" kn(nv that no answer could be given to all these ques- 
" tions, and therefore did not fail to put them." 



THE CRADLE O^i' THE CONFEDERACY. 167 

The answer to these questions is that President Jack- 
son was carried away by his personal animosity to Cal- 
houn, and having resolved to antagonize him and vin- 
dicate his determination to maintain a personal govern- 
ment, he hastened into an inconsistency, and assumed 
an attitude against State-rights which he afterwards 
desired to explain away. When Calhoun was elected 
to the Vice-Presidency with Jackson, it was not known 
to the latter that when a member of Monroe's Cabinet, 
the former had expressed the opinion that the General 
ought to be brought to trial for his conduct in the war 
against the Seminoles. When the tiiuth was made 
known to Jackson, he submitted the charge to Cal- 
houn's inspection and was intormed that it was true. 
From that day General Jackson was the implacable 
enemy of Calhoun. He even threatened him with the 
halter — and to show his hostility, he reorganized the 
Cabinet, giving a majority of the Secretaryships to the 
friends of Van Buren, and the enemies of Calhoun. 

Calhoun at once resigned the Vice-Presidency and 
was elected to the United States Senate to succeed 
Hayne, who had given up his seat in order to accept 
the Governorship of South CaroHna. Upon taking 
his seat in the Senate, Calhoun at once took issue 
with the President's proclamation. That proclamation 
had already been received with loud laughter and jest- 
ing commentaries by the South Carolina Legislature. 
This was to be expected ; but it was also received with 
doubt, hesitation, or opposition by a vast multitude, who 
did not sympathize with South Carolina. Henry Clay 
wrote December 12th, to Judge Brooks : "As to the 
" proclamation, although there are good things in it, 
"especially what relates to the judiciary, there are 



168 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" some entirely too ultra for me, and which I cannot 
" stomach." 

Before its adjournment the South Carolina conven- 
tion issued an address to the people of the United 
States, in which it declared that so far as lay in its 
power matters would not come to bloodshed, and that 
to avoid such result, the State would secede from the 
Union. Whatever doubt was entertained by the States- 
rights advocate as to the right of the State to remain 
in the Union and nulHfy Federal laws, it does not 
appear that there was any doubt among them as to the 
right of peaceable secession. In the Legislature of 
South Carolina the proclamation of Jackson was severely 
commented upon by Barnwell Smith, as conttiining 
'" the tyrannical doctrine that we have not even the 
" right to secede." The address proceeded to set forth 
a plan of taxation which would satisfy the State and 
lead to a repeal of the nullification ordinance. This 
concession was oflered by the State, " provided she is 
" met in due time and in a becoming spirit by the 
" States interested in the protection of manufactures." 

President Jackson, in his message of December 4th, 
recommended the removal of such duties as were found 
to fill unequally upon any of the community. This 
was a concession made in the face of the ordinance of 
South Carolina. On December 27th the committee to 
whom this part of the message was referred reported a 
l)ill decreasing the revenue $13,000,000 compared with 
the tariff of 3 828, and $7,000,000 compared with that 
1832. As this reduction was to take place within two 
years, it amounted to an abandomnent of protection. 
The manulactin-ers were alarmed, and Webster opposed 
the bill with all his power. He declared that Jackson 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERACY. 1G9 

was not in favor of any concessions to the nullifiers, but 
had been pressed forward by his party who feared the 
effect of the doctrines developed in the proclamation. 

Pending these proceedings the President asked for 
extraordinary powers to enforce the collection of cus- 
toms as against the ordinance ; and " in case of an at- 
" tempt otherwise to take the property [attached for 
" non-payment of duties] by a force too great to be 
" overcome by the officers of the customs," he applied 
for authority to use the land and sea forces to execute 
the law. On January 21st, the judiciary committee 
reported the bill known as the " force bill," to make 
possible the collection of customs. The bill was furi- 
ously assailed by all the States-rights advocates. The 
debate had continued fourteen days, and threatened to 
be almost interminable when Clay asked the Senate to 
permit him to bring in a bill to modify the tariff. Ben- 
ton relates that Clay had advised Webster of his inten- 
tions, but that the latter had opposed the proposed bill, 
saying : " It would be yielding great principles to fac- 
" tion, and that the time had come to test the strength 
" of the Constitution and the Government." 

Calhoun sustained the proposed bill, saying that the 
minor points of difference would present no difficulty 
if men met each other in the spirit of mutual compro- 
mise. That Calhoun did not yield consent to this pro- 
position simply to escape personal danger, appears from 
his speech of February 15th and 16th against the 
force bill, in which he declared that should that bill 
become law and an effort be made to enforce it, " it will 
" be resisted at every hazard — even that of death 
"itself" On February 18th the Senate ordered the 
force bill to a third reading by a vote of thirty-two to 



11 THE CRADLE OP THE CONEEDERACT. 

eight. On February 25th, on motion of Letcher, the 
bill of Verplanck, then pending in the House, was 
stricken out, and Clay's bill substituted for it. The 
bill, on the next day, passed the House by a vote of 
one hundred and nineteen against eighty-five. 

The House then tool^up the Senate bill. Already 
the Judiciary Committee of that body had, on Febru- 
ary 8th, denounced the message of President Jackson, 
and declared that the use of force towards South Caro- 
lina would be unjust and impolitic from every point of 
view. The committee did not pass upon the question 
of right, but they evidently believed that the Federal 
Government had no such right. The House did not 
carry out the views of the committee, but after waiting 
to see the fate of the Clay tariff bill, in the Senate, 
they yielded assent to the Senate force bill. When 
the force bill came up in the House, McDuffie asked 
what practical aim the bill now had, and Foster asked 
any member to rise in his seat who imagined any 
further resistence by South Carolina possible after every 
Senator and Representative from that State had voted 
for the tariff bill. Notwithstanding these objections, 
the passage of the two bills was tacitly regarded as a 
mutual concession, and the House ordered the force 
bill to a third reading, by a vote of one hundred and 
twenty-six to thirty-four. The Senate thereupon 
passed the tariff bill by a vote of twenty-nine to six- 
teen. The President signed both bills on the 2d of 
March, and on March 16th, South Carolina repealed 
the ordinance of nullification. 

The people of the South saw in this settlement a 
victory for South Carolina. The exhibition of resis- 
tiince to a Federal law by a single State had resulted 



THE CRADLE OF THIE CONFEDERACY. 171 

in a surrender by the Federal Government of the law 
in question. It is true that the passage of the force 
act was an assertion by the United States of the prin- 
ciples of the proclamation — but that assertion was 
weakened by a denial on the part of Jackson's intimate 
advisers of the apparent meaning of the proclamation, 
and was destroyed several years later by the adoption 
of substantially the very resolutions with which Cal- 
houn had met and defied that proclamation. 

A portion of Jackson's adherents objected to his 
course, because they saw in his proclamation the con- 
solidation ideas of the old Federalists. The Congres- 
sional Glohe met the reproaches of this faction with 
a long "authorized" article in which the President let 
it be stated that he recognized not only in the States 
but in the State Governments, the rights claimed in 
the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions. The article 
said : 

" Its [the proclamation's] doctrines, if construed in 
" the sense they were intended, and carried out, incul- 
" cate * * that in the case of the violation of the 
" Constitution of the United States and the usurpation 
" of the powers not granted by it on the part of the 
" functionaries of the General Government, the State 
" Governments have the right to interpose and arrest 
" the evil, upon the principles which were set forth in 
"the Virginia resolutions of 3 798, against the alien 
" and sedition acts ; and finally that in extreme cases of 
" oppression (every mode of constitutional redress hav- 
" ing been sought in vain) the right resides with the 
^^ people of the several States to organize resistance 
" ngainst such oppression." 

The editor of the Globe, Francis P. Blair, who was 



172 THE CRADLE OF THE COTTEDERACT. 

authorized to explain aw;\y the genemlly understood 
meaning of the proclaniatiou. proceeded in this article 
to say that during the debat>e on Foote's resolutions 
between Ha^iie and Webster, and Avhile he wt\s aiitor 
of a journal in Kentucky-, he receivevi from tlie Post 
Miister General the speech delivered by Mr. LiA*ing- 
ston. accompanied by a letter ssipng that the vie^A's 
conhuned in it were sanctioned by the President and 
might be considered as exhibiting the light in wliich 
his administitition considered the subject under debate. 
The following extracts from that speech will serve to 
illustrate the principles upon which the President then 
took his stand, and to explain the moi*e condensed 
view given of tbem in his proclamation : 

" It is a compact by which the people of each State 
** have consented to take from thefr own Legislatures 
" some of the powers they had conterreil upon them, 
" and to transfer them, with other euumemteii powei's, 
** to the Government of the Unitod StJ^tes. creiited by 
'* that compi\ct." 

" Yet I am far from thinking that this [Supreme] 
*' Court is created an umpire to judge between the 
" General and State Governments." 

•' In an exti'eme ctise * * * the injured State 
'* would have a right at once to declare that it would no 
" longer be bound by a compact which had been thus 
*• grossly violateii." 

John Tyler in his memofr of Roger B. Taney. s;iys 
that when the pixx^lamation was presented to President 
Jackson, he disapproved the principles and doctrines 
contained in it But as the conclusion suited him, he 
iletenninotl to issue it at once, without waiting to cor- 
rect the eiToueous doctiines contained in it. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY. 173 

The South did not believe Jackson entertained the 
principles of his proclamation. It was against his 
views and conduct in the Creek controversy. It was 
antagonistic to the Virginia KesolutiorLS of 1798, which 
he professed to endorse. It ran counter to the above 
expressed views of Livingston, who is .said to have 
written the proclamation. They attributed his course 
to purely personal hostility against Calhoun, and they 
attributed the concession of the United States on the 
Tariff question as a recognition of the coiTectness of 
the views of South Carolina. The condition of the 
public faith as to the umpire in disputes between the 
States and the United States was well expres.sed by 
Clay in his letter of January 17th, to Brooks : " As 
" to politics we have no past, no future. After forty 
" years of existence under the present Constitution, 
" what single principle is fixed ? The bank ? No. 
" Internal improvements ? No. The tariff ? No. 
" Who is to interpret the Constitution ? We are as 
" much afloat at sea as the day when the Constitution 
" went into operation." 

Not only did the actual victory rest with South Car- 
olina in this controversy, but the intellectual and moral 
victory rested with the champion of South Carolina. 
On January 22d, 1833, Calhoun introduced into the 
Senate his celebrated series of resolutions w^hich gave 
rise to the remarkable debate between himself and 
Webster. The first resolution against which the thun- 
ders of Webster were directed, reads as follows : 

" Resolved, That the people of the several States 
" comprising these United States, are united as parties 
" to a constitutional compact, to which the people of each 
" State acceded as a separate sovereign community, each 



174 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" binding itself by its own particular ratification ; and 
" that the Union of which the said compact is the 
"bond, is a Union between the States ratifying the 
*' same." 

From this compact the other resolutions deduced the 
doctrine of the resolutions of '98, that in this case as 
in all other cases of compact among sovereign parties, 
without any common judge, each has an equal right to 
judge for itself as well of the infi-action as of the mode 
and measure of redress. These resolutions of Calhoun 
were aimed directly at the President's proclamation. 
Webster so accepted and so treated them. He argued 
that "the Constitution means a Government, and not 
" a compact." " Not a Constitutional compact but a 
'' Government." " If compact, it rests on plighted 
" faith, and the mode of redress would be to declare the 
" whole void." " States may secede, if a league or 
" compact." 

Seizing upon this admission of Webster, that a State 
may secede if the Constitution is a compact, Calhoun 
in his response called attention to the language used by 
Massachusetts in ratifying the Constitution. She speaks 
of it as a " solemn compact." He called attention to 
Webster's own language in his great speech three years 
before, upon the Foote resolutions, when he alluded to 
" accusations which impute to us a disposition to evade 
" the Constitutional eomimetP So complete was Cal- 
houn's argument that Webster never offered a rejoinder. 
Alexander H. Stephens, in his "War between the 
'•States," speaks of it as " a crusher, an extinguisher, 
" an annihilat'T," and says — " This speech of his was 
" not answered then, it has not been answered since, 
" and in my judgment never will be, or can be answered 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 175 

" while truth has its legitimate influence, and reason 
" controls the judgments of men." 

That Webster felt the force of Calhoun's argument 
is evident from the change in his own views within the 
next few years. In 1839^ in the case of the Bank of 
Augusta vs. Earle, Webster used such language as this : 
" I am not prepared to say that the States have no 
" national sovereignty." " The Constitution treats 
" States as States." " The States of this Union, as 
" States, are subject to all the voluntary and customary 
" laws of nations." The language of the Supreme 
Court in this case was : " They are sovereign States." 
" A corporation created by one sovereignty is per- 
" mitted to make contracts in another, and to sue in its 
" courts." " The same law of comity prevails among 
" the several sovereignties of this Union." Thus the 
Supreme Court held that sovereignty is still retained 
by the several States of the Union under the Constitu- 
tion. Webster admitted it. The great "^ expounder 
"of the Constitution," in 1839, was immeasurably 
behind his successor of 1861, who held with Lincoln 
that the relation of a State to the United States was 
simply that of a county to a State — without one 
shadow or spark of sovereignty. 

Subsequently, in his letter to the Barings, bankers of 
London, who enquired as to the right of States to issue 
bonds and bori'ow money, Webster recognized in the 
State this high privilege of sovereignty. "Every 
" State," said he, " is an independent, sovereign, poUti- 
" cal community, except in so far as certain powers, 
"which it might otherwise have exercised, have been 
" conferred on a General Government." Again, in 



176 THE CBADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

1851, Webster expressed similar views in a speech 
made at Capon Springs, Virginia. He said : 

" How absurd it is to suppose that when different 
"parties enter into a compact for certain purposes, 
'' cither can disregard any one provision, and expect, 
" nevertheless, the other to obseiTe the rest." 

" I have not hesitated to say, and 1 repeat, that if 
" the Northern States refuse, wilfully and deHberately, 
" to carry into effect that part of the Constitution 
" which respects the restoration of fugitive slaves, the 
" South would no longer be bound to observe the com- 
" pact. A bargain cannot be broken on one side and 
" still bind on the other." 

The Resolutions of Calhoun in 1833 did not express 
more distinctly than this language of Webster, that the 
Union is a Union of States, that the Union is founded 
upon Compact, and that a compact broken on one side 
does not continue to bind the other side. No vote was 
taken upon the Calhoun resolutions of 1833, but on 
December 28, 1837, only four years later, Calhoun in- 
troduced to the Senate a new set of resolutions, the 
first of which, in these words, set forth the very idea of 
those of 1833. 

Resolved, That in the adoption of the Federal '-Con- 
" stitution, the States adopting the same, acted severally 
"as free, independent, and sovereign States; and that 
" each for itself, by its own voluntary assent, entered 
"the Union with the view to its increased security 
" against all dangers, domestic as well as foreign, and 
" the more perfect and secure enjoyment of its advan- 
" tages, natural, political and social." 

It will be observed that this resolution is in direct 
conflict with the Websterian doctrine as announced in 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 177 

1833, and with the generally accepted meaning of 
Jackson's proclamation. Calhoun here announced that 
the Union is a compact springing from the States act- 
ing as States, and not a government springing fi'om the 
people. This resolution was adopted by a vote of thir- 
ty-two Senators against thirteen. Eighteen States voted 
for it ; and Senators representing only six States voted 
against it. One State was divided and one did not 
vote. Thus more than two-thuxls of the States, through 
their Senators, vindicated the poUtical ideas of Calhoun, 
and this verdict was given only four years after the or- 
dinance of nulUfication, and after Jackson's proclama- 
tion. 



CHAPITER VIII. 



Controversy heticecn Alabama and the United States — Tn- 
trnsion on the Crwh Lands — Killinff of Owens — Mes- 
sage of Governor Gayle — Threats of Resistarwe to the 
Military— Resolutions of a Legislative Committee — 
Mission of Key to the State — Adjustment of the Diffi- 
culty — The Federal Government Compromises the Ques- 
tion, ti'C, &c. 



" Allegiance, a word brought from the Old World, of Ijatin origin, 
from ligo, to blud, means the obligation which every one owes to that 
power in the State, to which he is Indebted for the protection of his 
rights of person and property. Allegiance and sovei-eignty, as we have 
seen, are reciprocal. ' To whatever power a citizen owes allegiance, that 
power is his sovereign.' To what power are the citizens of the several 
States indebted for protection of person and property, in all the relations 
of life, for the regulation of which governments are instituted ? Cer- 
tainly not to the Federal Government." 

Alexander H. Stephens. 



" The use of force against a State would look more like a declaration 
of war than an infliction of punishment, and would probably beconsid- 
ered by the party attacked as a dissolution of all previous compacts by 
which it might be bound. * * Any government for the United States 
formed on the supposed practicability of using force against the uncon- 
stitutional proceedings of the States would prove visionary and falla- 
cious." 

Jambs Madison, in the Convention, 



The lands occupied by the Creeks in Alabama were 
laid off and organized into nine counties, by an act of" 
the General Assembly, so as to put the entire machin- 
ery of the State Government into full operation. This 
was in accordance with the action of Georgia, in pur- 
suance of the Constitution of Alabama, and consistent 
with the views of President Jackson, as understood at 
the time the treaty was made, and before his views had 



180 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

become affected by the tariff difficulty in South Caro- 
lina. Several of these counties contained a population 
of six or eight thousand whites, and the aggregate 
white population was not less than twenty-five thousand. 
The treaty by which the Creek Indians in Marcli^ 
1832, ceded to the United States their possessions in 
Alabama, contained this stipulation : 

Article 5th. — "All intruders upon the country 
" hereby ceded shall be removed therefrom in the same 
"manner as intruders may be removed by law from 
" other public land, until the country is surveyed and 
" the selections made ; excepting however from this 
" provision, those white persons who have made their 
" own improvements, and not expelled the Creeks from 
" theirs. Such persons may remain till their crops are 
" gathered. After the country is surveyed, and the se- 
" lections made, this article shall not operate upon that 
" part of it not included in such selections. But in- 
" truders shall, in the manner before described be rc- 
" moved from the selections, for the term of five years 
" from the ratification of this treaty, or until the same 
" are conveyed to white persons." 

It will be seen that, by this article, the Government 
assumed upon itself the obligation of removing intru- 
ders fi'om this land, in the same manner as intruders 
might be removed by law from other public land. The 
'^manner'" was prescribed in the Act of Congress, 
passed March 3d, 1807, entitled "An Act to prevent 
" settlements being made on lands, ceded to the United 
" States, until authorized by law." This Act provided 
for the interposition of the Marshal and the employ- 
ment of military force, under orders of the President, 
and fiirnished the authority by virtue of which the 
proceedings in Alabama, in relation to this subject, took 
place. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 181 

There were two limitations to this obligation. One 
excepted from its operation " those white persons, who 
" have made then- own improvements, and not expelled 
" the Creeks from theirs ; such persons may remain till 
"their crops are gathered." As the season alluded to 
had passed away, and the crops had been gathered, this 
provision was no longer applicable to any settler upon 
these lands. The other hmitation confined the obligation 
of the Government, to remove intruders, to the tracts 
located for the Indians "after the country is surveyed 
" and the selections made," and leaving the duty of re- 
moval imperative over the whole cession, until both of 
these objects were accomplished. 

It was now denied by Alabama as it had been by 
Georgia, that the Act of 1807 applied to intrusions 
upon lands lying within a State. As early as the year 
1785, when Colonel Harmar was engaged in removing 
intruders from the public lands in the western country, 
the commissioners of Indian affairs directed him to 
employ such military force as he might judge necessary 
in driving off persons attempting to settle on the lands 
of the United States, " not within the limits of any 
" particular State." 

It \vas claimed that the settlers upon these vacant 
lands, hunted over by the Creeks, had the same rights 
of occupancy and pre-emption permitted by the laws 
of the United States in the case of any other vacant 
lands. Under a series of Acts of Congress, extending 
from the Act of May 10th, 1800, down to that of 
1830, persons who had settled upon public lands in 
anticipation of a sale, were entitled to the right of pre- 
emption. The Act of 1830 provided — " that every 
" settler or occupant of the pubUc lands, prior to the 



182 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" passage of this Act, who is now in possession, and has 
"cultivated any part thereof, in the year 1829, shall 
"be, and he is hereby authorized to enter with the 
" register of the land office, for the district in which 
" such lands may lie, by legal subdivisions, any number 
"of acres not more than 160, or quarter section, to 
" include his improvement, upon paying to the United 
" States the miniumm price of the land." 

In this continued succession of Acts, embracing and 
running through a period ol" thirty years, all conferring 
upon settlers the valuable privilege of pre-emption, is 
shown the settled policy of the Government to encour- 
age citizens to settle and occupy the public lands. 
This class of population had always been esteemed 
highly meritorious, and the exclusive right to purchase 
at private sale was extended to them in consideration 
of, and as a reward for, the services they had rendered 
by these settlements, in testing the value and product- 
iveness of the soil ; and in affording facilities to pur- 
chasers to examine it. 

Notwithstanding this claim of Alabama to jurisdic- 
tion of her State laws over the Creek territory, and 
notwithstanding the Ihct that the " treaty " doctrine 
had been exploded for several years, and the pre-emp- 
tion rights of settlers had been respected for thirty 
years, the Federal Government announced its purpose 
to remove the so-called " intruders " upon Creek terri- 
tory, numbering now twenty-five thousand souls, by the 
strong arm of milifciry force. 

Alabama had sustained President Jackson in his 
contest with South Carolina on the tariff (juestion, 
and the Governor of the State, John Gayle, had })een 
elected to the executive chair as an opponent ol the 



iHE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERACY. 183 

theory of nullification ; but, notwithstanding the ardent 
desire of the people of the gulf country to strengthen 
the Union, they were constantly met by stubborn facts 
which tended to repress that desire. Governor Gayle 
had . no dispo.^ition to bring about a collision between 
the Federal Government and the State of Alabama, 
but the theory as to the treaty-making and commerce- 
regulating powers of the General Government, as ap- 
plied to Indian tribes and lands, was so repugnant to 
the rights of the States and to the interests of the peo- 
ple, that he was borne along by the same current of 
argument and events which carried Governor Troup to 
the edge of battle. The honest and patriotic spirit 
which actuated the Governor of Alabama is exhibited 
in his letter dated at Tuscaloosa, October 2d, 1833, 
and addressed to Lewis Cass, Secretary of War. In 
that letter he says : 

" If the General Government have the right to regu- 
" late the conduct of our people in relation to their 
" land — if it can rightfully expel a citizen who tres- 
'' passes upon the landed possession of his neighbor, by 
" the summary interposition of a military guard, with- 
" out even the forms of military investigation, what is 
" to restrain it from the exercise of the same power in 
" relation to trespassers upon personal property ? From 
" this the transition would be easy to the taking cog- 
" nizance of all irregularities, misdemeanors, and crimes, 
" the right to punish which, has heretofore been con- 
" sidered as belonging exclusively to the State tribu- 
" nals. If, by the treaty-making power, the ordinary 
" operation of our laws upon the persons and property 
" of our own citizens can be suspended, as will be the 
" case if the 5th article of the treaty is executed in 
" the mode prescribed in your late order to the marshal, 
" the whole field of State jurisdiction may be consid- 



1S4 THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDEEACY. 

" cred as occupied ; ami Stifi€ soverei^ti/, the re^erveti 
"" riphts of the States. 4v., are but uumeaniug sounds, 
'• totally unworthy of serious consideration. 

•• I know that these tenns are used by many as mere 
" cant expressions, and that they have been brought 
"into disrepute by the extravagant pretensions and 
" absm'd doctrines of a sister State ? but they imply 
*• things that are still worth presening. and as long as 
" the blessings of this Union are justly appreciated, 
••they will command the best and highest exertions of 
*• the patriot- It is often dij9icult to trace, with precise 
~ accuracy, the boundary which sepaiiites the jurisdic- 
•^ tion of the State and Federal Governments. We can 
•^ at all times, however, determine nearly where it lies. 
^ But this treats' is for giving it a new direction. It 
•• crosses the line designated in the Constitution, at 
*• light angles, and runs into the ver}- heait and centre 
** of our domestic concerns. 

*• But, sir. there is another ^iew of thi> subject, 
" which will expose in a light still more glaring, the 
" utter incompiitibilit}' of this treaty with the jmisdic- 
*~ tive rights of the State of Alabama. 

'• As before observed, the right of extending our 
'* laws over the couutr\' from which our people are 
'* ordered to be expelled, is admitted to the fullest 
'* extent- This necessarily implies the right of employ- 
" iug the means that are indispensible to its exercise. 
'• What are these means '? As enumerated in the Con- 
'• stitution of this State and the laws made in pui-su- 
'• auce thereof^ they are, that the State shall be laid olf 
^' into counties, and convenient circuits, that the circuit 
*' courts shall be held in each county at least twice in 
** eveiy year, that the counties shall be divided into 
'• smtdl districts, in each of which there shall be ap- 
" pointed two justices of the pe;ice and two constables, 
" that there shall be. in each circuit, a judge of the 
*• circuit court, who shidl reside in his circuit, that there 
" shidl be for each county a judge of the county court. 



THE CRADLE OF THE'CONFEDERACY. 185 

" that there shall be also in each county, a sherifi^ 
" clerks of the circuit and county courts, a coroner, 
" notaries public, commissioners of roads and revenue, 
" &c.; and that there shall be summoned, previous to 
" every circuit court, a competent number of grand and 
" petit jurors, and a like number of petit jurors for the 
" county courts. All these ministers of our law are 
" required to reside in the counties to which their office 
" belongs. These are the ordinary means by which our 
" Stiite government is put in operation, and effect given 
'• to our laws. And yet the late instructions to the 
"^ marshal absolutely prohibit the use of them. 

" The General Government has not only admitted 
" the right of Alabama to extend her juiisdiction 
" over the ceded country, but it has invited and encour- 
" aged such extension by sundry documents to which 
" it is unnecessary to refer. No sooner, however, is the 
" country organized and the necessary steps taken to 
" this end, than an armed forced is collected on the 
" banks of the Chattahoochee for the purpose of expel- 
" ling firom this large and flouiishing section of the 
" State all ' white persons,' including of course all civil 
" officers and other persons whose agency is necessary 
" to the execution of our laws. 

" We will have no power to punish any offences 
" committed by the Indians, or to subject them in any 
" respect to the restraints of the law, because our 
" courts will have been suppressed in all the counties in 
" which they reside. Now, sir, if your order be car- 
" ried into effect, will not an instance have occurred in 
"our country, and the first instance, too, of the gov- 
" ernmeut of a State being put down and destroyed, in 
" nine of its counties, In' military force ? Will not the 
" alarming spectacle be exhibited of the laws of one of the 
" States of this Union, in their ordinary operation, being 
" compelled to yield in time of profound peace, to the 
" dominion of the sword — to give way to the capricious 
" will of a deputy marshal, whose favorite modes of 



ISG THE CItADLE OF TAE CONFEDERACY. 

" punishment seem to be the conflagration of dwellings 
" and the application of the bayonet. 

" I respectfully request that this project, so fatal in 
" its tendency to civil liberty, and so directly subver- 
" sive of the acknowledged rights and sovereignty of 
" the State of Alabama, be abandoned. 1 protest 
" aoainst it as unconstitutional interference with our 

o 

*■' local and internal affairs, and as a measure of revolt- 
" ing injustice and oppression towards that portion of 
" our inhabitants who have not injured the Indians. 
" Put away, sir, the sword which has been unneces- 
" sarily and too quickly drawn against this large and 
" unoffending community. It is the appropriate arbiter 
" in contents of ambition, but not in questions of con- 
" stitutional right. It is not to be forgotten that the 
" American people, on a recent occasion, pronounced 
" emphatically, that questions of jurisdiction between 
" the foreign and domestic branches of our government, 
" are to be settled by the tribunals which the Constitu- 
" tion vests with the power of expounding the laws. 
" To these tribunals I appeal on behalf of the good 
'' people of this State." 

In August, 1833, a citizen of the county of Russell, 
by the name of Owens, was killed by a party of soldiers 
who had been placed under the direction of the deputy 
marshal for the Southern District of Alabama, for the 
purpose of removing from the Creek country such per- 
sons as had intruded upon Indian possessions. These 
officers had previously made frequent incursions with 
the soldiers of the United States, and their action, after 
the murder of Owens, kindled an excitement that 
rapidly extended over the whole of the new counties, , 
and in some degree, throughout the State. Governor \ 
Gayle was at once satisfied that the mode adopted by 
the Government to carry the stipulation of the treaty 
into effect, and to evict intruders, could not fail to pro-. 



THE ORACLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 187 

duce serious and unpleasant difficulties, and that it 
would lead to unhappy, and perhaps dangerous 
excesses. 

He wrote to the Secretary of War protesting against 
the action of the soldiery, but received no other 
response than that the settlers must be removed. 

The greatest agitation existed in the new counties. 
Everywhere public meetings were called, at which was 
represented the incalculable injury in which their re- 
moval would involve them. It was perceived, when 
the business of hurning houses and delivering crops to 
the chiefs should commence, that the exasperated feel- 
ings of the people would urge them to stand by their 
wives, their children and their property, that bloodshed 
would be the inevitable consequence, and that many 
valuable lives would be lost. In the meantime, the 
troops of the United States had taken their position at 
Fort Mitchell, and active preparations were making to 
move in upon the settlers. At this period, apparently 
so gloomy, the Governor issued a proclamation to the 
inhabitants of the new counties, recommending and ex- 
horting them to look with unshaken confidence to the 
law for protection, to submit to any pi'ocess from the 
courts of the United States, and to abstain from at- 
tacks or unlawful violence to^\ards the Indians. The 
civil officers were advised to issue, promptly, all neces- 
sary process for the apprehension of offenders, and the 
people generally were instructed to look to the courts 
as affording more certain protection than they could 
expect from a confused and disorderly resort to arms. 

This step had the elTect, at once, to quiet the citizens, 
to inspire confidence in the elficacy of the laws, and to 
put a stop to the contemplated movement of the troops; 



188 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

thus affording, says Governor Gayle, " a practical and 
" impressive illustration of the great truths so often and 
" so ably advocated by the President himself — that the 
"Constitution of the United States, and the constitutions 
" and laws of the several States, as they are understood 
" by the common sense of mankind, are sufficient for 
" any emergency, and that the laws in their usual and 
" customary operation will stay the hand of encroach- 
" ment, in whatever quarter it may appear." 

The grand jury of Russell county returned a bill of 
indictment for murder against the soldiers and officers 
who were concerned in the death of Hardeman Owens, 
and application in due form was made to the command- 
ing officer at Fort Mitchell to dehver them over to the 
civil authorities. The appHcatiou was rejected. The 
Governor, in his message to the General Assembly, 
November 19, 1833, said: "The officers and troops 
" of the United States, at this post, have set our laws 
"and our courts at defiance, and the power of the 
" county is not sufficient to arrest the offenders. 
" Though full power is conferred on the executive by 
" the Constitution, to call forth the militia in cases of 
" this kind, yet sincerely desirous of avoiding all col- 
" lision with the Government or any of its ollicers — 
" and not doubting that they would be ordered to be 
" delivered up for trial — ^I have deemed it unnecessary 
" to take any other step than transmit the despatches 
" to the War Department, for consideration of the 
"President, which was done on the 23d ult." 

The Secretary of War, in a letter to Senators King 
and Clay, of Alabama, as early as December, 1832, 
had distinctly acciuiesced in the continuance of the so- 
called intruders upon the Creek lauds, provided they 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY. 189 

interfered with no Indian rights. Mr. Cass had said : 

" Taldng into view the facts that the season for agri- 
" cultural labor will not arrive for some time — that the 
" surveys arc nearly completed, and that as soon as 
'^ they are received, the locations of the individual 
" reservations will be made, and the tract selected for 
" each will be assigned and delivered to him, I do not 
" see that any injury would result to the Indians, by 
" permitting those persons who obtained peaceable pos- 
'^ session of the land on which they live, and do not 
" retain it to the exclusion of any Indian, justly 
" entitled to it, to occupy those tracts till the several 
" selections are made. If, however, any of them are 
" selected for the Indians, it will be expected that the 
" occupants relinquish possession, within thirty days 
" after such selection is made. This arrangement 
" seems to me to be an equitable one, and I trust will 
" be satisfactory to all persons interested in the subject. 
" I hope, further, that after the locations are made, 
" quick possession will be relinquished to the Indians, 
" so that the Government will not be compelled to resort 
" for that purpose to measures which I am anxious to 
" avoid " 

Letters of similar tenor had been addressed to Hon- 
orable Gabriel Moore and other citizens of Alabama. 

Referring to the letters of the Secretary, Governor 
Gayle placed the responsibihty, for the condition of 
allairs, upon the Federal Government, using this 
language : 

" After the publication of those letters, no one, what- 
" ever his respect for the laws and for the rights of 
" others, could have supposed he was doing wrong or 
" violating any of the duties of a good citizen, by 
" making a settlement in this part of the State ; and it 
" is submitted to the impartial judgment of all candid 
" minds, whether the great body of the settlers have 



190 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" not been involved in their present difficulties without 
" any feult on their part. 

" Whea the act of the last session was passed, laying 
" this country off into counties, the letters of the Sec- 
'' retary of War were before the Legislature. 

" Without this measure, the people would have been 
" deprived of separate representation for the next six 
" yeai'S, and it was obvious that our laws could not be 
" made to operate with effect upon a population so 
" large and so rapidly increasing. The policy and the 
" views of the administration in relation to the Indians 
" were made known, and the act, while under considera- 
" tion, was regarded as being in strict accordance there- 
"with. The treaty extinguished the Indian title to 
'Mand, and the Indians had become citizens of the 
" State, and amenable to its laws, by their own con- 
" sent, thereby obviating all objections gi'owing out of 
" our former relations with their people. All saw and 
" acknowledged the necessity of the measure, and none 
" objected to it. The -. eneral Assembly were iuflu- 
'' euced in their course by considerations of public duty 
" and pubhc pohcy, and it certainly never entered the 
" mind of any one that they were encroaching upon 
" the property rights of the United States. 

" It is difficult to anticipate the effects that would 
" result from the abolition of these counties. All crim- 
'• inals and persons indicted for ofl(3nces, will be dis- 
" charged ; all suits will be discontinued ; the courts 
" and all offices abohshed ; officers wiU lose their places, 
" and in fine, such is the intimate coimexion between 
" these and the other counties of the Sfeite, that to 
" desti'oy them would embarrass and derange the 
'' administration of justice generally, and introduce 
" perplexing confusion through the whole machinery of 
" the State government." 

The conclusion of Governor Gayle's message indi- 
cates the change of political sentiment which was being 
brought about in Alabama by the new pretensions of 



THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 191 

the Federal Government. So long as the question of 
usurpation agitated a sister State, the people were con- 
tent to follow those leaders who exalted the Union, and 
strengthened Federal power ; but now that the usurpa- 
tion had come home to themselves, we find an execu- 
tive message using this language : 

" In the present controversy, my situation has not 
" been free from difficulty and embarrassment. Yield- 
" ing as I had done, for the last ten yeai's, a sincere 
" and disinterested support to the distinguished citizen 
" who now fills the presidency, it was with the utmost 
" reluctance that I felt myself consti'ained to oppose 
"the course he had adopted. The country, too, had 
" but recently emerged from the gloom of a threatened 
" conflict with a sister State, and it was foreseen that 
" even a difference of opinion with the administration 
'* would tend to awaken the fears and alarm the appre- 
" hensions of many good citizens. 

" The suppression of the State government, or the 
" maintenance of its laws in eight flourishing and pop- 
" ulcus counties, were the alternatives presented, and I 
" embraced that to which I was dbected by the solemn 
" obligation 1 had assumed as the chief magistrate of 
" one of the independent States of this Union. With- 
^' out resorting to force, which I cannot believe neces- 
" sary, unless the process of our courts be altogether 
" disregarded, I have maintained the integrity of these 
" counties and kept the laws steadily in operation." 

Before this controversy had reached the point when 
it was suggested that force might be used to protect 
the civil organization of the eight counties against the 
pretensions of the War Department, Governor Gayle 
had been re-elected to the executive chair without 
opposition. In dehvering his inaugural address, De- 
cember, 1833, before the General Assembly, the gov- 
eraor declared that to execute the order of removal, 



192 THE CKADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" power is claimed to suppress by milibuy force the 
'* government of the State in eight of its counties, to 
" regulate, at the point of the bayonet, trespasses by 
" our citizens upon the possessions of each other, and 
" in eftect to establish mihtary tribunals as substitutes 
" for our courts." Commenting on this inaugural, the 
Mobile Register, of date December 6, 1833, defied any 
man in South Carolina to indite a better nullifying 
paragraph : "And yet," said that journal, "his excel- 
" leucy, not ten days before, took occasion to denounce 
" nullification in good set terms ; perhaps he has a pre- 
" judice against the phrase ; it may be that he thinketh 
" it unpopular, or that a rose by any other name 
" would smell as sweet." 

A special committee was i^aised by the General As- 
sembly to report upon the grave matters submitted in 
the message and inaugural. 

Near the end of December, the chairman of this 
committee, Mr. Breen, made their report and submitted 
the following resolutions for the consideration and 
adoption of the House : 

1st. Resolved, That the order of the Secretary of 
War, directing the removal, by military force, of the 
whole white population, from the counties contained in 
the territory ceded by the Creek Indians, was unneces- 
sary for the protection of the Indians, that its execu- 
tion would be destructive of the prosperity of the citi- 
zens, subversive of the jurisdiction of the State, and 
ought not to be carried into eflect. 

2d. Resolved, That in the opinion of this General 
Assembly, the Act of Congi-ess, of 1807, was not 
intended to have eflect within the limits of States of the 
Union ; that the execution of the provisions of said 
Act, by the military force, would be subversive of the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 193 

rights of the citizens, destructive of free government, 
and incompatible with the jurisdiction and sovereignty 
of the States. 

3d. Resolved, That the General Government has no 
constitutional power to interfere with the internal muni- 
cipal aflairs of the State, that when the Government 
has parted with the public lands, it has no further con- 
trol over them, and that trespasses by the citizens of 
the same State, Ujjon the property of each other can lie 
regulated and corrected alone by the laws and authori- 
ties of such State. 

4th. Resolved, That the power conferred by the 
Constitution of the United States upon the President 
and two-thirds of the Senate to make treaties is limited 
and restrained by the grants of power therein con- 
tained, and that all treaties which encroach upon the 
reserved rights of the States are usurpations of power, 
subversive of the Government and destructive of civil 
liberty. 

5th. Resolved^ That this General Assembly do ap- 
prove of the principles avowed, and the propositions 
assumed by the Governor of this State, in his procla- 
mation dated on the 7th day of October last; ad- 
dressed to the citizens of the Creek country and in his 
recent correspondence with the Secretary of War, and 
that he is hereby authorized and requested to see 
that the laws and jurisdiction of the State, be main- 
tained in foil force and effect in the said counties. 

As indicating the wide-spread interest manifested by 
citizens of other States, both North and South, in the 
progress of this controversy, the Richmond Enquirer 
used this language : " We know of no event, which 
" would cover the Mends of our Federal Institutions 
" with so deep a gloom, as the actual collision between 
" the Federal and the State authorities in this instance, 
^' and the shedding of the blood of our fellow citizens 
" in a civil contest between the troops of the United 



194 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" States and the militia of Alabama. Here is a Presi- 
" dent of the United States, who has distinguished him- 
" self by his manly vindication of the rights of Geor- 
" gia in the case of the Cherokee Indians. We should 
" expect from him a course in relation to the Creeks, 
" which may manifest his strict respect for the rights of 
" Alabama. Here, also, is the Governor of a State, 
" who has avowed himself one of the most decided 
" opponents of nullification, in the whole Southern 
" country. Who better calculated to settle this dispute 
" than these two citizens ? To respect, on the one 
" hand, the sacred and inalienable rights of the States, 
"• in relation to State jurisdiction over the Indian 
" tribes, and on the other, to avoid all rash and hasty 
" recourse to violent measures against the agents of the 
" United States. We put it freely to all, that, if under 
" such favorable circumstances, a direct issue should be 
" made up between the two ; if blood should be shed 
" in this civil war ; how much would it gratify the ene- 
" mies of our Federal system, who predict that the 
" machine is too compHcated to play fi'eely, and that 
" the parties must inevitably clash with each other ? 
" And what disconsolation would it not impart to the 
" real friends of the Republic ? " 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 195 

Governor Gayle, among other letters of encourage- 
ment received the following'^ from a number of young 
men of Hudson, New York: 

Hudson, New York,) 
Dec. 29, 1833. ^ 
To His Excellency, 

John Gayle, 

Governor of Alabama. 
Sir. -A number of young men of this city, sensible 
of the injustice with which Alabama is threatened in 
the proposed forcible removal of the settlers from the 
Indian territory, have appointed us a committee to 
offer their and our services to your Excellency in the 
anticipated contest. We propose to raise a company 
of volunteers, to act as the service may require. If 
you, sir, are willing to receive our aid, please inform us 
as soon as convenient. 

With great respect. 

Your most obedient servants, 
J. Yanvleck, 

N. T. ROSSETER, 

E. Clark, 

F. N. Cady, 
C. S. Jordan, 
R. H. Burton. 

The committee sustained their resolutions with an 
able report, in which they held, that to drive out the 
30,000 white settlers at the point of the bayonet, would 
be a cruel and unparalleled usurpation ; that a govern- 
ment whose laws are carried into effect without the 

*This letter is amonR the correspondeoce of the late Governor Gaylet 
kindly submitted to the author by his accomplished daughter, Mrs, 
Thomas L. Bayne, of New Orleans. 



196 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

intervention of courts, by military authority, is a des- 
potism, by whatever name it may be called; that 
whether a tract of land is public or private property is 
strictly a judicial question which every citizen has a 
right to have investigated according to the known and 
established forms of law ; that the doctrine that the 
rightful jurisdiction of a State can be taken away by 
virtue of a treaty has been so uniformly repudiated by 
President Jackson, both by his declarations and by his 
practices, that it could not with any propriety be 
advanced by the Secretary of War ; that such a doc- 
trine has not been seriously contended for by the great 
Federal party of our country, since the period of Jay's 
treaty, and it is to be regretted that any attempt 
should be made to renew it now ? If the rights of the 
State, urged the committee, can be bartered away by 
the President and Senate under the form of a treaty, 
there could have been no object in inserting any pro- ' 
visions in the Constitution limiting the General Govern- 
ment to certain specific objects for the security of the 
State and the people. According to such a doctrine it 
would be in the power of President and Senate to 
change the form of our government. 

It was the earnest desire of the Alabama Represen- 
tatives in Congress, who, with Governor Gayle, had 
opposed the nullification measures of South Carolina, 
'that there should be no breach with the President. 
William R. King and Gabriel Moore of the Senate and 
Messrs. John Murphy, Dixon H. Lewis and Clement 
C. Clay of the House, exerted themselves to bring 
about a compromise of the matters in controversy. 
Upon reaching Washington, they hastened to call upon 
the President, and to lay before him the distress that 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 197 

would be caused by a strict compliance with the order 
of removal. While conciliating the President by remov- 
ing from his mind the idea that the Governor of Ala- 
bama was desirous of following in the steps of South 
Carolina, they, at the same time, opened the way for 
an adjustment, by assuring Governor Gayle that the 
executive order was never intended to be carried into 
full effect, but was simply framed to cover every case 
that might possibly arise under the treaty. The lan- 
guage of Ex-Governor Murphy to Governor Gayle was : 
" I beheve it was never intended to expel all the peo- 
" pie from the ceded Creek territory. This would evi- 
" dently be carrying the thing beyond the justice or 
" necessity of the case. The order issued was general 
" in its nature to apply to what had taken place, or 
" might possibly afterwards take place, and to cover 
" every stipulation of the treaty intended for the benefit 
" of the Indians. It was merely asserting the control 
" of the Government over the subject, should there 
" aiise the necessity to exercise it ; but evidently the 
" execution of the order would be governed by that 
" necessity. Why remove the whole population while 
" only a few individuals have been guilty of trespass, 
" and indeed while the Indians for whose benefit all this 
"was done had no desire that any but a very few 
'' should be removed ? It never could have been 
" necessary, and therefore could never have been in- 
" tended." Mr. Murphy continues in his letter of 
December 3d, 1833 : " The nullifiers have endeavored 
" to make much of this excitement. They entertained 
" great hopes from it for their cause." 

Early in December, 1833, Mr. King called upon the 
President and received assurances that " no measures 



198 TfiE CfeADLE OF THE (DONFEDERACY. 

" should be taken for the removal of the settlers who 
" had not interfered with the possessions of the Indians," 
and these assurances were at once conveyed to Gov- 
ernor Gayle. On the next day Representatives Clay 
and Samuel W. Mardis accompanied Senator King upon 
a visit to the SecD-etary of War, Lewis Cass, and rep- 
resented to him, as Mr. King and Mr. Murphy had 
already done to the President, the condition of affairs 
in Alabama. The Secretary acceded to the views and 
wishes of the delegation, and requested them to submit 
to him an address in writing. The address was drawn 
up and submitted to the Secretary. The President ap- 
pointed Francis S. Key, author of " the Star-spangled 
"Banner," a commissioner, to visit Alabama and adjust 
all the questions in dispute. Mr. Key was a man of 
most captivating address, learned in the law, of high 
personal character and great prudence of action. A 
better agent could not have been selected to mediate in 
a dispute which had almost reached the point of armed 
colHsion. 

To prepare Governor Gayle for the conciliatory com- 
nmnications borne by Mr. Key, Mr. Murphy reviewed 
the whole controversy elaborately in a letter to the 
Governor, and closed by intimating that his course 
would lead to a breach between him and President 
Jackson, and the result would be that he would find 
himself drifting out of the Republican party and into 
the ranks of the opposition. Writing, Februaiy 28, 
1 834, in reply to Murphy, Governor Gayle said : "As 
" straws show which way the wind blows, some small 
" occurrences, too unimportant to mention, have pro- 
" ceeded towards me from the President, which induce 
" me to su})pose he is tired of the Creek controversy, 



THE CRADLE OF THE COi^FEDteRACY. 199 

" and wishes to mend the breach which that affair has 
" produced. My feelings have had no effect to change 
" the favorable light in which I have always regarded 
" the prominent measures of General Jackson s admin- 
" istration, or his qualifications and fitness for the office 
" he fills, but I can never yield him the zealous and 
" active support, which I have heretofore extended, 
"under the charges of corrupt speculation and furuish- 
" ing a combination with the nullifiers, which were dealt 
" out against me some time since by the Glohe, as it is 
"understood, with the approbation, if not at the 
" instance, of the President." 

A letter from Senator King to Governor Gayle, 
dated March 18, 1834, was evidently intended to heal 
the breach between the Governor and the President and 
to pave the way for the success of Mr. Key's mission. 
The Senator wrote as follows : 

" In the controversy in which you conceived it your 
" duty, from your official situation, to engage with the 
" General Government, no man knew better than your- 
" self the view which I took of the matter. Actuated 
" by a strong feeling of personal and political friendship, 
" I felt that I could, without offence^ speak to you 
" plainly on a subject of such absorbing interest. I 
" did so in a spirit of frankness and friendship. I 
" was, as you know, anxious thyt as far as practicable 
''all discussions should be avoided by the legislature, 
" then about to meet. I feared no good would come 
" of it, and the event has, I am sorry to say, in some 
" measure realized my apprehensions. I saw Mr. Key 
" at Montgomery, and had a free conversation with 
"him. I did, I trust, ample justice to the purity of 
" your motives and pure Republican principles. I pre- 



200 THE CUADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

" [){ire(l him to meet you in the undisguised spirit of 
" pohtical confidence and personal respect. I took the 
'* earliest occasion to remove from the mind of the 
"President and the authorities here any unfavorable 
" impression which the excitement growing out of the 
" discussion might have produced. I know that I suc- 
" ceeded, as you have some evidence in the altered 
" tone of the Secretary of War. As to the publica- 
" tions or strictures which appeared in the Globe, you 
" must not take them as conveying either the senti- 
'• ments of the President or of any responsible person 
" connected with the administration. The editor of 
" that paper is perfectly reckless in his course, and 
"although it is considered in the country as the official 
" paper, God help the administration, if it is to be held 
"responsible for all of Blair's indiscretions. In the 
" very few communications I made to members of the 
" Legislature while the subject was under consideration 
"I held but one language — 'put an end to debate; 
" divide not our party ; respect the feelings of our 
'' Governor ; impair not his well-earned popularity ; 
" give not currency and strength to the doctrines of 
" nullification by divisions amongst ourselves.' Sir, no 
•' [)olitical considerations would have induced me to 
" make this plain detail of my motives and conduct 
'• throughout this whole business. But I had seen with 
" deep regret statements intended no doubt to produce 
" alienations, if not the destruction of our ancient friend- 
" ship. The course pursued by some of those with 
" whom I sfcmd connected, but as you know radically 
" dilfering with me on many of the great subjects of 
_'' [)olicy which mark the distinctions of party in our 
" country, was, no doubi, under the circumstiinces, cal" 



TiaE CBADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 201 

" culated to produce unpleasant feelings for the 
" moment. I am happy to learn they have passed 
" away with the occasion which called them forth." 

It is interesting to know that the breach between 
the President and Governor Gayle was never cured, 
and that the latter, after retiring from the gubernatorial 
chair, threw his influence for Judge White for Presi- 
dent, as against Mr. Van Buren, and subsequently 
supported General Harrison and the Whigs. He was 
an elector upon the Whig ticket in 1840, and in 1847 
was elected by the Whig party a Representative in 
Congress from the Mobile District. In 1849 he was 
appointed by President Taylor, United States District 
Judge for Alabama, which office he held until his death 
in 1859. In November, 1841, Governor Gayle re- 
ceived fifty-five votes in the Alabama Legislature for 
United States Senator, against seventy-two for Mr. 
King. 

Secretary Cass, in pursuance of the modified views 
of the President, transmitted to the Governor a letter 
informing him that as soon as the report of the death 
of Owens reached the War Department, a communica- 
tion was sent to the deputy marshal informing him 
that instructions had been given the milihiry command- 
ing officer to facilitate, by all the means in his power, 
any investigation which the civil authorities might con- 
sider necessary. He supposed, until recently, that 
Major Mcintosh, the officer in command, had followed 
these instructions ; but it appears that there was some 
mistake in the transmission of the orders. The Presi- 
dent had now instructed Mcintosh directly to submit 
to all legal process. The Secretary said : " These 
" orders were given some days since, and 1 have the 



202 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" honor to enclose you a copy of them. I transmit 
" also an extract I'rom the instructions to Mr. Key, who 
" has been employed to aid the District Attorney of 
" the Southern District of Alabama, in the legal inves- 
" tigations growing out of this subject, by which you 
" will see that the supremacy of the civil authority will 
<=' be asserted and maintained as far as depends on the 
"^ executive. These orders and instructions will be suf- 
" ficient to insure the due submission of the troops now 
" in Alabama, to all legal process, and I trust will be 
" satisfactory to your excellency." 

Mr. Key, in a communication, dated at Tuscaloosa 
December 16th, 1833, to the Governor, informed him 
that the reservations allotted to the Indians would be 
laid off' by January 1 5th, and that the settlers upon all 
the lands outside of these allotments would be released 
from the stipulations of the treaty, and no longer sub- 
ject to removal. Those settlers who were upon the 
reservations would have it in their power to purchase 
the right of the Indians whose lands they occupy. 

In view of the early day at which the titles of the 
settlers would be assured, and of the fact that the order 
for removal was virtually withdrawn, and the further 
fact that the jurisdiction of the State Courts over the 
soldiers who killed Owens was admitted. Governor Gayle 
sent a special message to the General Assembly, 
December 20th, in which he said that " the principal 
" o})joct of this unpleasant controversy having been 
" obtained, by asserting and vindicating those great 
" principles which were established by the Constitution 
" for the security of the people and for the protection 
" of the States, in Ihe exercise of their rightllil juris- 
'' diction, it cannot fail to be a source of the highest 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 203 

" satisfaction to our fellow citizens in these new coun- 
" ties, that the calamity with which, at one period they 
" were threatened, has been averted, and of pride and 
" patriotic exultation to our people everywhere that the 
" supremacy of the civil over the military authority 
" has been successfully maintained." 

Mr. Hopkins, of the House, in his reply to the 
advocates of the resolutions of Mr. Beene's connnittee, 
said that the modification of the orders of the Secretjiry 
of War as conveyed to Governor Gayle by Mr. Key, 
must satisfy ninety-nine out of every hundred of the 
people of Alabama. If this compromise were not 
accepted and these nullifying resolutions of the com- 
mittee were carried out, there would inevitably be a 
collision between the State and Federal Government, 
and Alabama would fall before the power of the 
national arms ; or, if successful in the struggle, she 
would soon become the prey to internal dissensions and 
to ambitious men. He moved, therefore, that the res- 
olutions be indefinitely postponed. The vote was, 33 
for postponement and 34 in the negative. A motion 
was then made to lay the resolutions on the table. 
The vote was, nay 30, yea 30. A motion was then 
made to refer them to a select committee. This motion 
was adopted by a vote of, yea 3G, nay 33. The com- 
promise offered by Key having been accepted by the 
Governor, and having received the approbation of the 
press and of the people, the select committee never 
j-eported upon the resolutions. The controversy 
between Alabama and the Union was not settled upon 
principle, but was smothered by a compromise ; and the 
pcoi)le once more witnessed the Federal Government 
yielding the point at issu(3 to the hostile demonstrations 
of the State. 



CHAPTER IX. 



The Federal Party Reorganize upon the Slavery Question — 
Co7itiriued War upon the Agricultural States — Ojnn- 
ions of the Souther )i People as to Slavery — The Mis- 
souri, Compromise — The Sladc Agitation — The Aho- 
litionist, George Thompson — Views of England — 
Opinions <f Jackson, Marey, Clay, Everett and others 
— Drawing of the Geographical Li7ie, t£'c'., iS)C. 



"Adverse fortune and ill-judged policy had brought the Federal 
party to its end. Its leaders saw that all was over. New and living 
issues must be sought for. Not without wisdom did they select anotlier 
standpoint and prepare to comijat tlieir adversaries In Ills most vulner- 
able part. A compact and an unmistalcable formula, of which the pur- 
port is easily understood, is invaluable as a party war-cry. To restrain 
slavery, and eventually to destroy it, iiecanie their dogma. It gathered 
irresistible power, because it was in unison with the sentiments of the 
times." 

Draper's Civil War in America. 



"The [Missouri] question is a mere party trick. The leaders of Fed- 
eralism arc talcing advantage of the virtuous feeling of tlie people to 
effect a division of parties ]>y a geographical line; they expect that this 
will ensure thera, on local principles, the majority they could never ob- 
tain on the principles of Federalism." 

Thomas Jefferson. 

"You are iiindling a tiro which all the waters of the ocean cannot 
extinguish; it can be extinguished only in blood." 

Thos. W. Cobb, in Congress, 1819. 



Down to the year 1819, a period of over thirty 
years from the adoption of the Constitution there had 
been no objection to the admission of a State to the 
Iliiion because ol the existence of slavery. Objection 
had been made to the Louisiana purchase upon other 
grounds, but not upon that of slavery. Louisiana, 



206 THE CRADLE OF TDE CONFEDERACY. 

Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee had nil 
been admitted with constitutions recognizing slavery. 

Down to this period the existence of slavery in a free 
Republic had not been held by any large number of 
people to be repugnant to our theory of government. 
Nowhere in the Union had it been regarded as viola- 
tive of moral or Christian law, or opposed to the rights 
acquired by conquest and capture. No political party, 
or fi-action of a party, had denounced the slave- 
holding States as unworthy members of the Union" 
But now, the Federalists, casting about for a new subject 
upon which they might rally their scattered forces, and 
upon which they might draw the lines around the agri- 
cultural States, seized upon the question of slavery. 

The people of the Southern States had inherited 
their slaves. They had grown up upon the plantations 
and had passed from father to son by the laws of 
descent. The ancestors of these slaves had been 
brought into the Southwest against the wishe.-- of 
Oglethorpe. One of the earliest laAvs of the colony of 
Georgia was that forbidding the introduction of African 
slaves — but the greed of traders had broken through 
all laws until the ships of Old England and of New 
England had filled the South with a vast number of 
negToes. Nothing in the history of the world, down to 
the present century had taught the people of this 
unhappy section, against whom had been launched the 
poisonous weapons of a defeated political party, that 
slavery was a moral wrong or a social evil. They saw 
it recognized by all the ancient nations, kingdoms and 
republics; by the Mosaic law; by the Roman empire^ by 
the Gospel of Christ; by all the more modern peoples; 
by the councils of the CathoHc church ; by the leaders 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFE DEKACY. 207 

of the reformation 5 by English law and custom ; every- 
where throughout the world, in all ages and climes. 
They saw it recognized in the Federal Constitution 
which permitted the importation of African slaves for 
twenty years after its ratification. 

In nearly every household throughout the South, if 
there were no other book, might be found the family 
Bible. That Bible told the reader of Abraham's slaves, 
bought with his money; of the Angel of the Lord who 
commanded the fugitive slave, Hagar, to return to her 
mistress and submit herself; of the tenth command- 
ment of the Decalogue, which spoke of the master's 
property in man servants and maid servants ; and of 
the . - osaic laws which recognized and regulated slavery 
in its severest forms The reader of the New Testa- 
ment looked in vain for any allusion to slavery by 
Christ ; for any word of censure for an institution then 
tolerated throughout the world ; for any word, on ac- 
count of it, of condemnation of Csesar, whose empire, 
according to the historian, Gibbon, then embraced sixty 
millions of slaves. They read the precepts of Paul, in 
which he told the slaves to be obedient to their masters, 
and in which he warned the masters to give unto their 
slaves that which is just and equal, since they also had 
a Master in Heaven. The preachers of the Gospel 
throughout the South, while inculcating lessons of 
mercy, justice and kindness between the master and 
slave, could not stultify themselves by denouncing the 
moral or Christian legality of Slavery. Before them 
were the writings of churchmen from the earUest ages, 
and nowhere, down to that period when the wild orgies 
of the French Revolution had upturned the founda- 
tions of society^ could be found any denial of the rec- 



208 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

titucle of an institution which had been coeval with the 
ages and coextensive with the habitable globe. Jerome, 
one of the oracles of the ancient church, writing at a 
time when the church was at peace and there was no 
longer occasion to conceal sentiments, commenting on 
1 Cor. 7, 21, said : " The condition of a slave cannot 
"be opposed to the Christian religion." Augustine, 
Bishop of Hippo, said that slavery could result from 
iniquity, as in the case when God cursed Canaan, and 
from purchase, as in the case of the sale of Joseph, and 
also from capture in war, and that Christ " does not 
"make free men of servants, but He makes good 
" servants of bad servants." " How much," adds St. 
Augustine, " do the wealthy owe to Christ who regu- 
" lates their home." The great Chrisostom, Bishop of 
Consttuitinople, the orator of the " Golden Mouth," 
writes : " For even as circumcision profiteth nothing, 
" and uncircumcision hurteth nothing, so even does 
" slavery or liberty, and in order that he [the Apostle 
" Paul] might teach this yet more plainly, he saith — 
" ' but if thou niayest be made free, use it rather.' 
" That is serve rather. But why does he command 
" him that might be free, to remain a slave ? Because 
" he desired to show that slavery does not hurt, but 
" even profits. We are not ignorant, indeed, that some 
" interpret the words, ' use it rather,' as referring to 
" liberty, saying, ' if thou mayest be freed, be free.' 
" But this is very contrary to the meaning of Paul, for 
" his design being to console the slave by showing that 
" his condition was no injury, he would not have 
" ordered him to become free." 

Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, in his book 
concerning the •' pastoral care," lays down this rule to 



TIJE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 209 

the clergy : " Slaves should he admonished in one way 
" and the masters in another. The slaves, to-wit : that 
^'- they should always in themselves regard the humility 
" of their condition : but the masters, that the memory 
" of their nature, in which they are created equally 
" with their slaves, must not be forgotten." There is 
extant a deed of gift by Gregory, conveying one of 
his slaves to the bishop of Porto, who had charge of a 
suburban diocese near Rome. The bill of sale recites : 
" so that you may have and hold him, and preserve 
" and maintain your right to him, and defend him as 
" your property, and do, by the free right of this dona- 
" tion, as his master, whatsoever you Avill concerning 
" him. Against which charter of our munificence, you 
" may know that neither we nor our successors are ever 
" to come." 

The Apostohc canons ; the Clementine constitutions ; 
the Council of Gangra in Asia Minor ; the Councils of 
Agde, Narbonne and Orleans, in France ; the Councils 
of Epone and Macon, in Burgundy ; the Council of 
Toledo, in Spain ; the Council of Berghamstead, near 
Canterbury, in England ; the Councils of Aix-le-Cha- 
pelle and Worms, in Germany — all recognized slavery, 
taught obedience to the master, ordered the rendition 
of fugitive slaves to their owners, and in no instance 
denied the rightfulness of the institution. Slaves were 
owned not only by kings, princes and nobles, but by 
citizens of every class and condition, by churches, 
monasteries, bishops and the clergy. 

Melancthon, Calvin, Luther ; and the commentators, 
Patrick, Lowth, Whitby, Henry, Scott^ Clarke and 
Doddridge ; all, construe the language of St. Paul pre- 



210 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDEEACY. 

cisely as the Christian church had construed it from the 
beginning down to the reformation. 

The change from a labor system of slavery to one of 
freedom was gradually brought about in Europe, but 
very slowly and without appeals to moral or religious 
sentiments. As late as A. D. 1545, the Turks, taken 
prisoners at Lepanto, were made slaves to the victorious 
Spaniards. They were divided among the victors in 
the proportion of one-half to Philip, and one-half to 
the Pope and Venice. Don John received as a present 
one hundred and seventy-four slaves. The number of 
slaves allotted to Philip, in chains, was three thousand 
six hundred. At least seven thousand two hundred 
slaves were divided out among Christians. At that 
day the universal judgment of Christendom was that 
there was no sin in holding slaves. 

It was as late as 1772, that England took the first 
step towards declaring against slavery in her courts of 
law. In the celebrated case of the negro Somerset 
who sued for his freedom, having been brought to 
London from the West Indies, that distinguished law- 
yer, Hargrave, declared in his brief that however" 
reasonable it may be to doubt the justice of domestic 
slavery, however convinced we may be of its evil effects, 
it must be confessed that the practice is ancient and 
has been almost universal. The negro, Somerset, was 
declared free on the gTound that no slavery but that of 
villeinage had ever existed in England by common or 
statute law, and that the last villein had either died or 
been manumitted a century and a half previous. Not 
a word was said about slavery being against moral or 
natural law. Disuse, in the case of villeinage, had 
destroyed it as a fact. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 211 

The first article of the treaty of Utrecht, A. D, 1718, 
stipulated that the English-African company should 
bring into the West Indies one hundred and forty 
thousand negroes within a period of thirty years, one- 
fourth part of the profits of the traffic to go to the 
King of Spain, and one-fourth to the Queen of Eng- 
land. If it was true, according to Lord Mansfield's 
decision in the celebrated Somerset case, that the soil of 
England could not tolerate a slave, it is singular that 
Queen Anne and a British company, chartered under 
English laws, could legally engage in the African slave 
trade and stock the colonies with slaves. Let it be ob- 
served that the period at which this stipulation was to 
terminate was the year 1749, less than twenty-two 
years before the decision of Lord JNIansfield, and before 
the period at which the American colonies entered 
upon the Revolution ! The stipulation was studiously 
observed by George I and George II ; and when it ex- 
pired, in 1749, the slave trade was thrown open by 
statute to all British subjects. So great was the influx 
of negroes into the colonies, under this statute of 
George II, that South Carolina and Georgia passed 
laws forbidding the importation ; but the British Gov- 
ernment abrogated the colonial acts, and reprimanded 
the Governor of South Carolina for having given 
assent to them. 

In view of Lord Mansfield's decision, it is still more 
singular to find the British Parliament after the Amer- 
ican war, in 1787, authorizing the exportation of cer- 
tain merchandise from the English islands to any foreign 
colony, and that in the list of merchandise is included 
rum and negroes. When the Somerset case was decided, 
there is said to have been, in London alone, fourteen 



212 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY, 

thousand negro slaves. The decision of Lord Mans- 
field was held not to be law by such distinguished 
jurists as Lord Hardwicke and Lord Stowell. Wilber- 
FORCE declared that all the British bar was against his 
eflbrts at emancipation. It was not until 1833, the 
period at which wo have just arrived in our sketch of the 
States-Rights agitation in Alabama, Georgia and South 
Carolina, that Great Britain emancipated her slaves in 
the West Indies. 

The American colonies having slavery fastened upon 
them by the treaty of Utrecht, and for the benefit of 
the purse of the Christian Queen Anne, grew up to 
believe in its rightfulness, and down to the American 
Revolution not a doubt as to its propriety, except here 
and there, was expressed. Lord Dartmouth, in 1774, 
immediately after the decision in the Somerset case, 
declared : " We cannot allow the colonies to check or 
" discourage in any degree, a traffic so beneficial to the 
'' nation." A few enlightened and benevolent minds 
lamented such a state of affairs, but their regrets were 
lost in the universal desire for gain. Laurens, of 
South CaroHna, said : " I am devising means for manu- 
" mitting my slaves. * * * Great powers oppose 
" me — the laws and customs of my country, my own, 
" and the avarice of my contrymen." In the draft of 
the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson bitterly 
complained that the King of Great Britain had forbid- 
den attempts " to prohibit or restrain this execrable 
"commerce." Patrick Henry, writing to a Quaker, 
said : " Would any one beheVe that I am master of 
" slaves of my own purchase ? I am drawn along by 
" the great inconvenience of living without them. I 
" will not, I cannot justify it," 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 213 

According to the census of 1790, there were slaves 
in all the States of the Union. Only six were reported 
in Massachusetts. There were two thousand seven 
hundred and fifty-nine in Connecticut ; three thousand 
seven hundred and thirty-seven in Pennsylvania; twenty- 
one thousand three hundred and twenty-four in New 
York ; eleven thousand four hundred and twenty-three 
in New Jersey ; nine hundred and fifty-two in Rhode 
Island. At that day there were more slaves in Pennsyl- 
vania than in Tennessee, and as many in New Jersey 
as in Kentucky. After the slave trade had ceased, 
slavery became unprofitable to the Northern States, and 
the greater value of the cotton fields, from the invention 
of the gin, drew southward the remaining slaves of the 
Northern States. Yet the complete abolition of slavery 
at the North was very slow. As late as 1840, Massa- 
chusetts, Maine, Vermont and Michigan were the only 
States which contained no slaves at all. In that year 
the number of slaves in the so-called free States 
amounted to one thousand one hundred and twenty- 
nine. 

When Virginia, in 1784, ceded to the United States 
her great Northwestern territory, Jefferson moved a 
plan for its government. The plan declared that after 
the year 1800, '^ neither slavery nor involuntary servi- 
" tude " should exist there. This plan was not 
adopted; but in 1787 an ordinance was passed by 
Congress forbidding slavery in all that territory and 
providing for the rendition of fugitive slaves. Not- 
withstanding these advances made towards emancipa- 
pation, we find that in 1785, Hopkins complained that 
" some New England States and other States " had 
again begun to import slaves from Africa. In 1800, 



214 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

Wain of Pennsylvania admitted in Congress that the 
slave trade was carried on in great part by Rhode 
Island, Boston and Pennsylvania ; and Bronn, of Rhode 
Island, said the encouragement of the trade " ought to 
" be a matter of national policy since it would bring in 
" a good revenue to our treasury." 

Very soon the West began wishing for slaves to till 
the fertile lands north of the Ohio. The territory of 
Indiana labored, from the year 1802, to induce Con- 
gress to suspend for a term of years the prohibition 
imposed by the ordinance of 1787. The request was 
rejected ; but subsequently it was reported upon 
favorably by the committees of- both Houses, although 
it failed to meet the approval of Congress. There 
were later attempts also to introduce slavery into 
Illinois. 

The breeze of war around the harbor of Charleston 
had just blown safely past, when the people of the South 
were destined once more to have their constitutional 
rights assailed, and now at a more vulnerable point. By 
the Missouri Compromise, an attempt had been made to 
exclude the people of the South from removing with 
their slave property to the territory North of thirty- 
six degrees, thirty minutes, north latitude. All the 
Stjites north of that line must be non-slaveholding ; all 
south of that line might be such, or not, as the people 
establishing the territory into a State should determine. 
It was not probable, nay, even possible, that the people 
of the South would desire or attempt to transport their 
slaves from the mild and rich lands of the Gulf to the 
bleak prairies of the Northwest. Yet the application 
of the settlers of Missouri for admission into the 
Union, with a constitution recognizing slavery, was 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 215 

made a pretext for assaulting the whole people of the 
8outh as slave propagandists, and of establishing the 
precedent that Congress has power to prohibit slavery 
in the common territory. The Constitution of Mis- 
souri happened to be framed by her first settlers, who 
had emigrated from Kentucky and Virginia, as growers 
of tobacco and hemp. So far as she was concerned, 
had the question been left alone, it was not probable 
that she would have remained a slave State beyond 
one generation. The Free-Soilers, not satisfied with 
their victory in excluding the property of the South 
from all the northern territories, now proceeded, insid- 
iously and systematically, to agitate, not so much for 
the aboUtion of slavery, as for a dissolution of the 
Union. 

Down to this day the people of the South were not 
banded together in support of slavery. They differed 
among themselves as widely upon that subject as they 
did upon other political questions. It was not the 
South who sprung the Missouri question. The settlers 
of Missouri, like those of Louisiana, Mississippi, Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky, had framed her constitution, and 
they alone were responsible for its features ; just as 
the settlers of Indiana a few years previous, and not 
the people of the North, generally, were responsible for 
her application to Congress to do away with the feature 
of the ordinance for the government of the Northwest 
territory proscribing slavery. Down to the period of 
the unhappy nullification ordinance of South Carolina, 
and even a few years later, Virginia, Kentucky and 
Tennessee were earnestly engaged in practical move- 
ments for the gradual emancipation of the slaves. In 
1832, Vhginia was on the verge of emancipation. 



216 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Both of the leading Richmond newspapers ; all of the 
most prominent statesmen, and perhaps a majority of 
the people favored the policy and the justice of the 
measure. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, grand son of 
Thomas Jefferson, a delegate from Albemarle, one of 
the wealthiest and largest of the slave-holding counties, 
brought forward a bill in the House of Delegates to 
accomplish this object. The bill was freely and folly 
discussed, and advocated by many leading members. 
Not a voice was raised in defense of slavery. Mr- 
Randolph did not press his measure to a vote, but the 
House resolved by a vote of sixty-five to fifty-eight 
that they were sensible of the evils arising from the 
condition of the colored population of the common- 
wealth, but that further action for a removal of the 
slaves should await a more definite development of 
pubfic opinion. Mr. Randolph's course was approved 
by his constituents, and at the next election he was 
returned to the Legislature as an advocate of this very 
measure. 

Unfortunately, at this moment, when emancipation 
hung quivering in the balance, as though to prevent 
what was in process of accomplishment through peace- 
ful and constitutional means, the anti-slavery agitation 
was set on foot by EngHsh and New English agents. 
It assumed such an alarming aspect for the peace and 
security of the Southern people, that an immediate 
reaction against emancipation was the result. Mr. 
Randolph, a short time thereafter, expressed a confi- 
dent belief to James Buchanan, that but for this inter- 
ference, the General Assembly of Virginia, at no dis- 
tiint day, would have passed a law for gradual emanci- 
pation. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 217 

The moderate tone of Southern sentiment, at that 
period, is further evidenced by the fact that the Consti- 
tution of Mississippi was amended by a clause prohib- 
iting the introduction of slaves into her territory. The 
General Assembly of Alabama had also forbidden the 
introduction and sale of slaves from other States. At 
several sessions of the Legislature of the latter State, 
there was an open advocacy by the '^ lobby " of grad- 
ual emancipation — a proposition seriously entertained 
by the more intelligent and independent members. It 
was a notable fact that the agents of certain cotton 
factories, owned by Quakers, travelled through the 
State, seeking and purchasing only such cotton as was 
produced by free labor^ their religious and moral scru- 
ples forbidding them to encourage slavery by investing 
in its products. This practice was tolerated, barely 
drawing forth an adverse criticism from those who 
were thus passed by as men violating the moral law. 

As early as 1825, Governor Israel Pickens, of Ala- 
bama, in his message to the General Assembly, calling 
attention to resolutions transmitted to him by the 
State of Ohio, recommending a plan for emancipa- 
tion and colonization, criticised the proposition in fair 
and temperate language, exhibiting an appreciation of 
the evils of slavery, and a desire for its removal, when- 
ever a practical plan might be suggested. He said : 

" Should the national government, at any future pro- 
" pitious moment see proper to offer a plan, it is to be 
'*• hoped that while it is characterized by justice to our 
" citizens, it will be worthy of national philanthropy ; 
" that preparatory to the free condition, proper nurser- 
" ies shall be provided for instruction in the necessary 
" branches of industry, in the arts and in literature, 



218 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEiDERACY. 

" as far as may be requisite to form useful members of 
" society and government." 

A still stronger evidence that the South not only 
tolerated, but actually participated to a wide extent in 
the anti-slavery sentiment, at that time and for many 
years after, is the support given Henry Clay, who, in 
his Lexington speech of September, 1836, denounced 
slavery as a curse to master and man ; as altogether 
wrong and a thing which no possible contingency could 
make right. The statesman who announced this senti- 
ment, received in the slave States three hundred and 
eighty-one thousand four hundred and six votes, as 
against four hundred and five thousand one hundred 
and seventy-eight cast for Mr. Polk, In Alabama, 
Mr. Clay received his strongest support in the slave- 
holding counties. 

The leaders of the slavery agitation, in New Eng- 
land and in old England, knew that there could be no 
dissolution of the Union so long as the Southern people 
were divided among themselves. A large section of 
the country must stand united in sentiment, and with 
contiguous territory, before secession could be practi- 
cally accomplished. It has been the habit of Northern 
politicians to say that Calhoun and other leading spirits 
of the South schemed to unite that section upon the 
slavery question when it was found not to be a unit 
upon the tarifl' and nullification questions. History 
does not substiintiate this charge. There was no wide- 
spread slavery excitement until the British agents of 
Exeter Hall estiibhshed a newspaper in Boston, and 
Hooded the South with incendiary documents. The 
motive of Great Britain in beginning this crusade was 
the same which was afterwards^ admitted, under other 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONlFEDERACY. 219 

circumstances, by a distinguished English statesman. 
" My reason," said Mr. Roebuck, ^^ for desiring the 
" acknowledgment of the South, was this : I wanted 
" the great Republic of America split into two. I 
" honestly and openly confess it, and if it had been so 
" it would have been better for us." 

The controlling motive of New England was to be 
found in the fact that by Clay's compromise measure, 
the protective tariff had a certain existence of only 
nine years ; that after that period, a union of the votes 
of the South with those of the West and North, who 
opposed protection, would, in their opinion, inevitably 
reduce the duties to a revenue standard, and place the 
flictories of America in competition with all the world ; 
and that a separation of the slave States from the 
Union would be the salvation of that protective system, 
which Clay and Clayton had declared to be dearer to 
the manufacturing regions than the Union itself 

That this agitation owed its origin to others, and not 
to the Southern people, and that it was not confined to 
an insignificant class of the American people, is evident 
from the olficial messages of Presidents and Governors. 
President Jackson saw proper to call the attention of 
Congress to the painful excitements in the South by 
attempts to circulate, through the mails, inflammatory 
appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints 
and various sorts of publications, ^* calculated to stimu- 
" late them to insurrection, and to produce all the 
" horrors of civil war." Governor Marcy, of New 
York, in his official message, said that he could see no 
object which the Abolitionists could have in view so far 
as they propose to operate by disseminating incendiary 
appeals, but to embark the people of New York, under 



220 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

the sanction of the civil authority or with its con- 
nivance, " in a crusade against the slave-holding States 
"for the purpose of forcing abolition upon them by 
" violence and bloodshed." " If such a mad project," 
said Governor Marcy, " as this could be contemplated 
" for a single moment as a possible thing, everyone 
" must see that the first step towards its accompiish- 
" ment would be the end of our confederacy and the 
"beginning of civil war." Governor Everett, of 
Massachusetts, in his message, said that the countiy 
has been greatly agitated during the past year in rela- 
tion to slavery, and that the patriotism of all classes of 
citizens must be invoked to abstain from a discussion 
which exasperated the master, rendered the condition 
of the slave more oppressive, and tied the hands of 
those at the South who favored emancipation. Such 
agitation, he feared, would " prove the rock on which 
" the Union will split." Clay, who was by no means 
an alarmist, or disposed to do injustice to any class of 
Northern people — remarked from his place in the Senate 
that "abolition should no longer be regarded as an 
" imaginary danger." Said he : " The Abolitionists, 
" let me suppose, succeed in their present aim of unit- 
^' ing the inhabitants of the free States, as one man, 
" against the inhabitants of the slave States, union on 
" the one side will beget union on the other. And 
" this process of reciprocal consolidation will be 
" attended with all the violent prejudices, embittered 
" passions and implacable animosities which ever de- 
" grade and deform human nature. A virtual dissolu- 
"tion of lhe Union will have taken place, while the 
" forms of its existence remain. The most valuable 
" eletnent of union ; mutual kindness; the feelings of 



THE CRADLE 6F THE CONFEDERACY. 221 

" sympathy ; the paternal bonds which now happily 
" unite us, will have been extinguished forever. One 
" section will stand in menacing, hostile array against 
" another ; the collision of opinion will be quickly fol- 
" lowed by the clash of arms." 

It was clear that the purpose and tendency of this 
agitation was to array the people of the Union by 
geographical lines. Every intelligent mind at the 
North saw and appreciated this fact. At first, the 
great mass of the people deplored and denounced it ; 
but, gradually the manufacturing interest glided into 
the movement* on the plea that the salvation of the 
tarifi* depended on the ostracism of the South. Then, 
hero and there, a few honest, but misguided humanita- 
rians took up the cry. Then the pulpit issued, in the 
same direction, its hebdomadal flow of irrelevant phil- 
anthropy. Then the young politicians, such as Williajvi 
H. Seward has been described to be in the funeral 
oration delivered by Charles Francis Adams, chiming 
in with the prejudices of his section, chose slavery 
agitation as the prolific means of obtaining local power 
at once, and national power after the irrepressible con- 
flict should have been fairly inaugurated. From a 
small beginning, this agitation assumed most fearful 
proportions. The pulpit; the press; State Legisla- 
tures; State and county conventions; anti-slavery 
societies ; and abolition lectures, were all brought into 
requisition to drive in the wedge between the sections. 
Abolition petitions flowed into Congress, signed by 
hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. 
The people of the South had every epithet of contempt, 
hatred and indignation hurled at their heads. If they 
took up a Northern magazine, their sentiments were 



222 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

shocked by the pages they read ; if they travelled 
with a servant, they ran the risk of being mobbed. 
They were not to derive consolation from the Word of 
God unless they believed it to be an anti-sla^^ery Bible ; 
they were not to commune as Christians, except in an 
anti-slavery church ; and there were grave doubts 
whether they Avould be admitted into any but an anti- 
slavery Heaven. Ex-President Jefferson, who was no 
friend to slavery, and who would have listened respect- 
fully to any plan by which it might be removed consti- 
tutionally, was alarmed from the very outset of this 
agitation, at the manner in which it was set on foot, 
and the motives which prompted it. He charged the 
leaders of Federalism with -taking advantage of the 
virtuous feelings of the people " to effect a division of 
" parties by geographical Unes." " They expect," said 
he, "that this will insure them on local principles 
the majority they could never obtain on principles of 
" Federalism." If Mr. Jefferson had been possessed 
of the powers of prophecy, he could not have more 
distinctly pointed out the methods by which the patri- 
otic and virtuous passions of the people of the North 
were to be directed, whenever occasion required, 
through their prejudices against slavery and the acts of 
the slave-holder, towards concentration of power in 
the Federal Government, and towards the absolute 
supremacy of Congress. 

The controlling spirit of this effort to array North 
and South on geographical lines was George Thompson, 
a man of genius, who had been sent from London 
upon an abolition mission to this country. He had 
been a member of Parliament, and was a vigorous 
thinker and writer. J. B. Morse, of telegraph fame, 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 223 

published about that time a letter giving a statement 
from General Wilson, a British officer employed by his 
government in the arrangement for emancipation in the 
West Indies, to the elTect that Great Britain sought a 
looting by this act of emancipation, from which to pro- 
mote dissensions between the North and South in 
regard to slavery, so as by disunion, if possible, to ad- 
vance her manufacturing interests. In furtherance of 
this object we find Thompson coming to America imme- 
diately after the West India Act, and repeating in con- 
versations that " every slaveholder should have his 
throat cut." Lloyd Garrison, another British subject, 
bectime editor of the "Liberator." In the Massa- 
chusetts House of Representatives he appeared before 
a committee of the General Assembly, an immense 
audience being present, and said : " I feel myself, Mr. 
" chairman, like Paul in the presence of Agrippa. 
" They tell us, sir, that if we proceed in our course we 
" shall dissolve this Union. But what is the Union to 
'' me ? I am a citizen of the world." The motto 
which he displayed at the head of his paper was : 
" The Constitution — A Covenant with Death, An 
" Agreement with Hell." 

The States of Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina and Alabama, transmitted to all the 
State Legislatures a series of resolutions asking that all 
petitions for the abolition of slavery be laid on the table 
of Congress without reading or printing. The twenty- 
fourth Congress agreed to this reasonable request ; but 
the twenty-fifth Congress had barely convened when 
the agitation was renewed from a Northern quarter, and 
rose at once to a pitch of unprecedented fury. In de- 
fiance of the adjustment made by the preceding Con- 



224 THE CRADLE 0¥ THE CONFEDERACY. 

gress, a member from New England created intense ex- 
citement by presenting two abolition petitions, and 
attempting to debate their merits. The Southern 
members, the next day, offered a rule by which all such 
petitions should be laid on the table without being read, 
printed or debated, and that no further action be had 
upon them. This rule was adopted by a vote of yeas, 
one hundred and twenty-two, to nays, forty. The num- 
ber and character of the petitions which came flooding 
the tables of Congress were sufficient to create the 
most intense excitement and uneasiness at the South. 
Benton says that they were signed by " hundreds of 
" thousands — many of them women who forgot their ' 
" sex and their duties to mingle in such inflammatory 
" work ; some of them clergymen who forgot their 
" mission of peace to stir up strife among those who 
" should be brethren." Buchanan says that they were 
directed not only at slavery in the District of Columbia 
and at the forts, dock yards, and arsenals of the 
United States, which might have been a legitimate and 
constitutional object ; but also against the introduction 
of any more slave States ; and some of them went so 
far as to petition for a dissolution of the Union itself 

Without provocation, other than the inheritance of a 
species of property transmitted to them by their 
fathers, the people of the South, without* a note of 
warning, upon the heels of the partial defeat of the 
protective tariff, and immediately after West India 
emancipation, thus found themselves ground be- 
tween the upper and the nether millstone — between 
the fear of New England at the loss of her manufac- 
tures, and the hope of Old England that the dissolution 
of the American Union would place the South at least 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 225 

in the condition of one of her own colonies, a rich con- 
sumer of her wares. From the Chesapeake to the 
Gulf, a peaceful, intelligent, brave and proud people, 
found themselves defamed in the halls of Congress, 
rebuked from pulpit, denounced from press, and threat- 
ened on all sides with the knife and the torch. " Sir," 
said Senator Buchanan, in the midst of this intense 
agitation : " Touch this question of slavery seriously — ■ 
" let it once be made manifest to the people of the 
" South that they cannot live with us, except in a state 
" of continual apprehension and alarm for their wives 
" and their children, for all that is near and dear to 
" them upon the earth, and the Union is from that 
" moment dissolved. It does not then become a ques- 
" tion of expediency, but of self-preservation. It is a 
" question brought home to the fireside, to the domestic 
"' circle of every white man in the Southern States." 

Following close upon this furious crusade — which 
relaxed a little of its violence when General Harrison, 
the hope of the protectionists, ascended the Presiden- 
tial chair, only to be resumed when the elevation of 
President Tyler dashed the cup from their lips — was a 
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
which aroused exultation on the part of the agitators, 
and corresponding indignation on the part of the South. 
The Constitution had made it mandatory that a fugi- 
tive slave " shall be deHvered up " on claim of the 
master ; and according to the doctrine of coercion, as 
held by the Federalists, it became the duty of the 
authorities of the State to which the slave had fled to 
deliver him up. If the State should omit to enact 
laws, or should obstruct such delivery, it followed from 
the coercion theory that Congress could compel the 



^26 TIIE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

State authorities to carry out the mandate of the Con- 
stitution. ' The Constitution provides that the States 
shall elect members to Congress. Suppose, said the 
advocates of coercion, the State should refuse to do so, 
would not Congress have the power to compel her to 
carry out a provision so necessary for representative 
government ? The class of politicians who have, at a 
recent day, decided this question in the affirmative, did 
not hesitate to deny, in 1843, the right of Congress 
to compel the State to carry out the constitutional 
mandate respecting fligitive slaves. In that year the 
Supreme Court held, in the case of " Prigg against the 
" commonwealth of Pennsylvania," that the State mag- 
istrates were not bound to aid the master so far as 
to grant warrants of arrest upon appHcation. 

If the master could have no aid from the local 
authorities, it was manifest, from the scarcity of Federal 
officers, that no arrests could be made, and that the 
provision of the Constitution would be nullified. This 
decision of the Court was claimed by Judge Story as a 
"triumph for freedom." He should rather have 
claimed it as a " triumph for nullification." So soon 
as the local magistrates were commanded to stand aside, 
a new and furious agitation was commenced against the 
continuation upon the statute book of the fugitive slave 
law of 1793, which required the Federal judges and 
magistrates, as well as those of the State, to carry its 
provisions into effect. Let it be remembered that this 
law was enacted by those who framed the Constitution, 
and during the administration of Washington. The 
L^islatures of several States passed laws prohibiting 
their magistrates from assisting in its execution. The 
use of State jails was denied for safe-keeping of the 



tflE CRADLE OF THE CONt'EDERACY. 22^ 

fugitives. Personal liberty laws were enacted, imposing 
insurmountable obstacles to the recovery of slaves. 
Every means was resorted to to nullify the constitu- 
tional provision. The life and liberty of the pursuing 
masters were placed in jeopardy. They were often 
imprisoned and sometimes murdered. . 

Thus the people of the South, for no fault of their 
own, were doomed to see their States insulted, their 
property destroyed, their lives menaced, the laws of the 
Union reviled and the Constitution spurned. Is it 
strange that this persecution produced its inevitable 
result ? Is it strange that emancipation was no longer 
mooted, that he who even suggested it was suspected 
as an enemy, that the stranger who wandered through 
the land was often treated with hasty indecency, that 
the reins were tightened upon the poor and innocent 
slave, that the geographical line became so distinct that 
to all intents the two peoples were separate nations, 
that the value of the Union became a question of dis- 
cussion, that the wish for separation sought out and 
welded together arguments in support of the right of 
secession, and that the Southern peoph}, from looking 
at slavery as a necessary evil, (lung back into the teeth 
of their tormentors that it was a necessary good ? 



OH^PTEK X. 



Position of the South during the Van Buren and Harrison 
Administration— -Relation and Tenets of Parties from 
I84.O to 1850 — More Territory for the South — New 
Threats of Division at the North — The Mexican War 
— Quitman and the Palmettoes — Offer of the Mexican 
Crown to General Scott — Condition of a Mongrel Pop- 
ulation^ (J&C, &c. 



" There is a political force in ideas which silently renders protesta- 
tions, pronalses and guarantees, no matter in what good faith they 
may have been given, of no avail, and which makes Constitutions 
obBolete." 

Draper's " Civiii War in America." 

" I have never read reasonings more absurd ; sophistry more gross • 
" in proof of the Althauasian creed or transubstantiation, than the 
" subtle labors of Helvetius and Rousseau, to demonstrate the natural 
' equality of mankind. The golden rule, do as you would be done 
" by. Is all the equality that can be supported or defended by reason, 
" or reconciled to common sense." 

John Adams. 

" But nature's laws are stronger than bayonets. She made the 
" Saxon and she made the Indian ; but no mixed race called Mexican 
" will she support. Already we are told that the Indian blood pre- 
" dominates; of course it will; but give the so-called nation another 
" century, and then let us consider what must happen. The Castilian 
" blood will be all but extinct, the Indian predominating; but by 
" that time the Anglo-Saxon, true to his go-ahead principle, seizes 
" Mexico ; but no Saxon will mingle with dark blood ; with him the 
»' dark races must be slaves or cease to exist." 

Knox's " Races of Men." 



Towards the close of Van Buren's administration, 
political parties, which had been in somewhat chaotic 
condition from the entrance of Alabama into the Union 
in 1819, now began to assume definite shape. The fol- 
lowers of Calhoun, who, although seated voiceless ift 



230 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDEBACY. 

the chair of the Vice-President, had spoken by Hayne 
in his great debate with Webster, and ^Yho had 
himself subsequently from a seat in the Senate, 
repeated and strengthened the argument, had never 
cordially affiliated with either the Cmy Whigs or the 
Jackson Democrats. They called themselves par excel- 
lence, the " States-Rights "' party. All the parties pro- 
fessed to be ad\-ocates of States-Rights ; but this part}', 
alone, defiantly and proudly, planted themselves on the 
premises laid down by Hayne, and undauntedly held 
their faces to the inevitable conclusion of the argument. 
They believed in the light of both nullification and 
secession. The State might choose either mode of re- 
dress ; for the resolutions of '98 had distinctly stated 
that each State had a right to judge for itself " as well 
'' of infractions, as of the mode and measure of redress." 
General Jackson had mortally oflended Mr. Calhoun. 
Whatever may be said of the explanations made by 
Blair and the " Globe," it is certain that the proclama- 
tion against South Carolina had stigmatized secession 
and nullification as treason. It declared, with respect 
to nullification, that it would be the abrogation of all 
Federal authority, and with respect to nullification that 
it would be nothing more nor less than an act of revo- 
lution. It said that these doctrines can only be advo- 
cated thi'ough gross error, or "to deceive those who 
" would pause before they made a revolution or incur 
" the penalties consequent upon a failure." 

In Calhoun's opposition to General Jackson's 
administration, the States-Rights party allied themselves 
with that branch of the old National RepubHcan part)^, 
who were now being called for the first time, Wmos. 
Calhoun and Clay were apparently in close alliance, 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY. 231 

and remained so, until the elevation of Van Bdren 
to the Presidency. There was no common ground 
of principle for this alliance. The opposition of Clay 
was to all the Democmtic measures of Jackson, since 
they all ran counter to his " American System ; " 
whereas the opposition of Calhoun was confined to the 
questions growing out of the alleged right of nullifica- 
tion. Upon questions of policy within the Union, Cal- 
houn was in general accord with the adherents of 
Jackson. While disclaiming any connection with any 
party, the South CaroHnian had given victory to Clay 
and Webster in many hard fought battles against the 
Jackson Democrats. Now that his old enemy had 
passed from the chief magistracy, Calhoun advanced to 
the side of the Van Buren administration, and sus- 
tained it in those financial measures which gave it 
character. 

The slavery agitation having subsided for a while, 
the great question before the country was, how the 
Federal revenue should be deposited, and in what kind 
of money. The Whigs contended for a national bank- 
ing system which should be the depository of the 
public funds, and that taxes should be payable in bank 
notes equally with coin. This system they contended 
would be of great convenience to the people In afford- 
ing them a medium of exchange which would not 
fluctuate in value; in doing away with the ruinous 
discounts which prevailed in the exchange of the 
money of one State for that of another ; and in distrib- 
uting throughout the States the Federal monies for 
which there was no immediate use by the Government. 
Banks, based upon Federal deposits, secured by Gov- 
ernment pledges, affording wide-spread and equal 



232 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

accommodation and confidence to business men, 
appeared to the Whigs to be not only a convenience, 
but a necessary protection fi'om those pecuniary panics 
which had so often swept over the country from the 
insecurity and recklessness of State banks. On the 
other hand, the Jackson Democrats, and now the Cal- 
houn States-Rights party, held that a national bank 
system tended to a consoKdation of Federal power ; 
that it gave undue weight and influence to the Federal 
agents ; that it tended to drive gold and silver fi'om 
circulation ; and that it placed all industrial interests at 
the mercy of the banks, and held the banks themselves 
at the mercy of the Secretary of the Treasury and of 
the President. In one word, it would place not only 
the purse of the Government, but the purse of every 
citizen at the mercy of the Executive. Beheving that 
a national bank system would endanger the rights of 
the States, the followers of Mr. Calhoun sustained 
President Van Buren in his recommendation for an 
independent treasury and a hard money currency. 

While these States-Rights men, in the several States 
of the South, denied the constitutionality of a national 
bank, it is a matter of history that their great leader 
was in favor of a United States bank in 1816, and that 
he supported and mainly carried through the charter 
under which it was incoi'porated by Congress ; aiding 
his colleague Lowndes in a speech of great ability. In 
that speech he admitted the constitutionahty of such a 
bank, although reserving an expression of opinion as 
to how far its powers might constitutionally extend. 
Dm-ing the twenty years of its continuance, he had 
never denied the power of Congress to create it ; and 
iu 1834, when the charter was about to expu'e, he 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY. 233 

advocated the renewal of its term for twelve years 
longer. 

The States-Rights party, from 1832, had acted upon 
the idea that they held the balance of power between 
the two national parties, and by throwing their weight 
into this or that scale, as their interests were best sub- 
served, they could modify the views of both parties 
and thus better protect the people of the South. Their 
course, however, was marked by an inconsistency 
which paralyzed them as an independent organization. 
As between General Harrison and Mr. Van Buren, in 
1 836, it would seem that their animosity towards " the 
Federalism of the Jackson Democrats should have 
induced them to sustain General Harrison, who was a 
strict-construction Whig. Not so, however ; they 
threw their ballots for Judge Hugh L. White, of Ten- ^ 
nessee, who carried the electoral votes of Georgia and 
his OAvn State. Had the States-Rights party of Ala- 
bama voted for General Harrison he would have carried 
that State. They voted for Mr. White, and thus Mr. 
Van }iUREN succeeded in Alabama by a majority of but 
three thousand four hundred in a popular vote of 
nearly thirty-five thousand. Among the revenges of 
time it is interesting to remember that the sage of 
Kinderhook, who was thus elevated to power, by the 
retiring of the States-Rights party to their tents, was 
destined to consohdate and lead the Abolition ranks at 
a later day, and by holding the balance of power in 
New York was able to defeat the party which had 
honored him with the highest office in the land. 

Immediatel}^ upon the election of Van Buren, Con- 
gress was called together in special session to take into 
consideration the finances of the country, and the 



/ 



234 THE CRADLE OF THE COKFEDERACY. 

Governor of Alabama called the General Assembly 
together to co-operate with Congress. Calhoun having 
allied himself with Van Buren, his followers immed- 
iately united their forces with the Jackson Democrats, 
throughout the South. In the Alabama General 
Assembly, the two bodies thus remained united for ten 
years. 

Analyzing the several political parties of the South, 
we find them with distinct characteristics, although the 
lines of demarcation merge here and there upon theo- 
retical questions. The Whigs and the Democrats were 
so equally balanced that in nearly all of the Southern 
States the few thousand independent States-Rights 
men were able to turn the scale. 

1. The Democrats beheved in the least government 
necessary for the preservation of public peace. They 
denied all incidental powers of Government, except 
when such incidents were absolutely necessary to carry 
into effect expressed grants. They opposed a national 
bank system, a protective tariff, and internal im- 
provements by the General as well as by the State 
government. They likewise opposed the distribution 
of the proceeds of the sale of pubhc lands among the 
States, and the assumption of the State debt by the 
Federal Government. It is difficult to say what 
portion of the party at this time beheved in the right 
of nullification and secession. The pohcy of the party 
was to express no opinion upon those questions, since 
none of the States except South CaroHna believed that 
an occasion had yet arisen for the exercise of that 
reserved right even if it existed. There was, however, 
a large body of the people who stood by the anti-nulli- 
fication proclamation of General Jackson. While 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEKACY, 235 

Georgia and South Carolina and even Tennessee repu- 
diated the Unionism of Jackson by voting, for Mangum 
and White, the Democrats of Alabama sustained Van 
BuREN, who was known to represent the sentiments 
of his predecessor. There were large numbers of the 
Democracy however, who while assenting to the re- 
served right of secession and recognizing the danger 
to the South from the incessant anti-slavery agitation, 
believed it best to abide by a national organization 
until oppression was unendurable. The tendency of . / 
the party, however, was to deny that the right of seces- 
sion had been reserved by the State upon her acces- 
sion to the Union. 

2. On the other hand, the WiiiGS gave a more liberal V 
construction to the powers of the Federal Government. 
They advocated internal improvements by both the 
Federal and State Governments, the establishment of a 
national banking system, a protective tariff, and the 
assumption of State debts by the General Government, 
with a distribution among the States of the proceeds of 
public lands. So far as the question of slavery was \/ 
concerned, they were content to abide by the Missouri 
Compromise. This compromise they considered an 
equivalent for the settlement of a disturbing question, 
and productive of no practical hardship to the slave 
owners. Fully understanding the grave prejudices 
which existed against slavery in all civilized countries, 
and appreciating the fact that there was no security for 
the property of the South except under the flag of the 
Union, the Whigs never hesitated to accept a compro- 
mise upon questions relating to negro slavery, when 
the South thereb}^ suffered no material loss, and the 
North thereby admitted that it had no disposition nor 



236 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

power to disturb slavery where it existed in the States.. 
The nttle band of outright Abolitionists in Congress, 
led by John Q. Adams, who were intent on using the 
Federal authority to abolish slavery even in the States, 
had no terrors for the Whigs. They held that the pat- 
riotism of the whole people would sustain the rights of 
the South, and that by the use of compromises which 
affected no material interests of that section, she could 
be saved from an agitation which imperiled the Union. 
/ There were very many Whigs who believed in the 
reserved right of secession, but the great body of the 
party stood by Clay and Webster in repudiating such 
a remedy, for even the grossest oppression, as anything 
more or less than the inalienable right of revolution. 
Even those who acknowledged the existence of the 
right saw the futihty of advancing it or of acting upon 
it except when prepared to enforce it by arms. To 
them, such a right, when denied by the opponent, could 
amount to nothing but the right of revolution. 

3. The States-Rights party were the advocates of 
nullification, in 1832, and the defenders of the right 
of peaceable secession at any time the sovereign State 
might judge such action to be necessary. If New 
England had believed that the embargo and non-inter- 
course law juvstified it, she had a perfect right to secede ; 
and so had Pennsylvania under the excise law; and 
Virginia under the carriage tax law; Georgia under 
the abrogation of the Indian Springs treaty ; Alabama 
on the non-removal of the Creeks ; and South Carolina 
under the tariff of 1824. From setting up the remedy 
in extreme cases, this party, grown familiar with the 
argument, fell into the habit of threatening secession in 
supposititious cases. Beholding the gradual expansion 



J 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 237 

of the Union and the formidable power which, by num- 
bers and wealth, was being concentrated at Washington, 
the rapid development of fortune at the North and the 
shifting of political power from the agricultural regions 
south of the Potomac to the manufacturing regions 
north of that river, the States-Rights party watched the [/ 
growth of the anti-slavery idea with increasing jealousy 
and distrust. Patriotism became tainted with doubt, 
and clouded with suspicion. Doubt and suspicion 
frowned at conciliation and compromise. With them 
a right was an absolute right, not a thing to be met 
with conciliation or cut in two by the cautious sword of 
compromise. While they were able to do so with 
dignity they would stand as a separate political body 
and throw their influence in that scale which inclined 
to their favor. When they could no longer assert 
their rights within one or the other political organiza- 
tions, they would seize the first occasion to assert them 
by separation from the Union. Being strictrconstruc- 
tionists of the extreme school, the States-Rights men 
could not, except in a few cases, act with the Whigs. 
After 1840, although now and then carrying on a 
guerilla warfare, they were generally to be found in the {/ 
Democratic ranks. With a single idea kept full in 
view, and with a tenacity which betokened courage, 
endurance, fidelity and honesty of purpose, they finally 
obtained a controlHng influence within the ranks of 
their allies. 

Even with the aid of the States-Rights men, the 
Democrats barely succeeded in endorsing the policy of ^ 
Van Buren. At Tuscaloosa, then capital of Alabama, 
the House of Representatives stood fifty-one for pay- 
ment of Government dues in specie, and forty against it. 



2^8 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDfiRAOY. 

Having cemented an alliance upon the financial 
questions of the day, the Democrats and States-Rights 

^ men fought under one banner in the autumn of 1840. 
Van Buren was their candidate for re-election. The 
manufacturers of the North had succeeded in thrusting 
Clay aside because of his tariff compromise, and had 
compelled the Whigs to nominate General Harrison. 
The nomination of that veteran officer was received 
with the wildest enthusiasm among the Whigs all over 
the country. Never was there such a series of elec- 
tioneering expedients. The Van Buren men were 
thrown upon the defensive. The financial disorders, 
which were most severely felt in the southwestern 
States, were all laid at the door of Jackson and his 
successor. The President was charged with being an 

, aristocrat. He was said to have purchased gold spoons 
for the White House, with the executive contingent 
fund. The chief magistrate who could use gold spoons 
when the poor farmers were suffering from a depre- 
ciated, and oftentimes worthless paper currency, was a 
tyrant, an aristocrat, a nabob and a monster. General 
Harrison, on the contrary, was the friend of the peo- 
ple. He had lived in a log cabin. He had been a 
frontier-man and had worn a hat made of a raccoon 
skin. He was a temperate and humble man who 
drank nothing stronger than hard cider, and who 
would scorn to take soup with a gold spoon. He had 
been a brave and successful general, and had fought 
the })attle of Tippecanoe. Hard cider, raccoon skins 
and log cabins, became the order of the day. Public 
meetings were held all over the South, and party excite- 
ment ran to the highest pitch. 

The fact that the nuUifiers, as they were called, were 



THE CRADLE OlP THE CONFEDERACY. 239 

acting unitedly with the Democrats, gave occasion to 
the Whigs to claim for themselves the distinction of 
being Unionists. So strong was the sentiment of 
unionism among the Whigs of that day, that a huge K 
ball was rolled from the Mississippi river to the 
Atlantic, through all the Gulf States, bearing among 
its inscriptions — " South Carolina ! Hemp for traitors ! " 
" Massachusetts, ever faithful ! " This ball was re- 
ceived at Montgomery with a grand ovation, and was 
conducted by one of the leading Whig politicians, 
James Abercrombie, one of the foremost men of that 
section. 

The devotion to the Union which marked the Ala- 
bama Whigs of 1840, even to a denunciation of a 
sister State of the South, and an undeserved eulogium 
upon a sister State of the North, became intensified 
during the Presidential canvass of 1844. The people 
of Texas, an independent government, had applied for 
admission into the Union. This application was to 
become the prolific source of a new agitation of the 
slavery question. The friends of Mr. Polk throughout 
the South were ardent for annexation. Throughout 
the North, however, a large part of the Democratic 
party opposed annexation, because of the certainty that 
Texas would enter the Union as a slave State. Al- 
though the opposing Whig candidate, Mr. Clay, 
favored annexation with certain restrictions, his 
northern followers cherished the hope that tfie restric- 
tions would be such as to defeat the project. Their 
position was that annexation should not be accom- . 
plished except by negotiation with Mexico; and as 
Mexico would certainly never give her consent, they 
could be held as positive and unqualified opponents of 



V 



240 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

a measure which appealed most strongly to the pride 
and heroism of the country and most directly to the 
pecuniary interests of the people of the South. The 
wider the area of the Southwest, the more surely would 
slave property recede from the Potomac towards the 
Gulf, and the wider would become the belt of friendly 
territory between the mass of slave property and the 
V / personal liberty laws of the free States. The Whigs 
of the South were as earnest for annexation as were 
the southern Democrats. On this question there could 
be no dispute between the parties in Alabama ; but 
there was a grave and fundamental difference between 
them as to the important question of Union or disunion, 
which now grew out of the Texas matter. 

The Legislature of Massachusetts, in its session of 
1843, with a Democratic Governor in the chair, and a 
majority of Democrats in both branches of the As- 
sembly, resolved : " that under no circumstances what- 
" ever can the people of Massachusetts regard the pro- 
" position to admit Texas into the Union in any other 
" light than as dangerous to its continuance in peace, in 
" prosperity, and in the enjoyment of those blessings 
" which it is the object of a free government to secure." 

The danger to the peace of the Union, contemplated 
by this resolution, could exist only in the determina- 
tion of the New England States to Ibrcibly resist the 
annexation of Texas, or to secede from the Union at 
the happening of that event. The resolution was for- 
warded to Congress and to the several States. Natur- 
ally it called forth an indignant response from the 
South. It was a menace on the part of Massachusetts 
that no matter under what circumstances Texas might 
be acquired by the Union, there should be no peace 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 241 

between the sections. The 'succeeding Legislature, 
containing a majority of Whigs, left in no doubt the 
intention of their predecessors. That body, directing 
that their proceedings should be sent to Congress and 
to the States, solemnly resolved " that the project \/ 
" for the annexation of Texas, unless arrested on the 
" threshold, may tend to drive these States into a dis^so- 
^^ luiioii of the Union.'' Cotemporaneously with this 
resolution, the inaugural address of the Governor 
announced for the first time in the history of the 
Union a proposition which culminated finally in general 
abolition of slavery. He said : 

" Indeed, there is reason to beheve that before the 
" existence of our Constitution, our highest court held 
" the opinion that the Declaration of Independence put 
" an end to slavery in this State." 

From this fact, he asked whether it was unreasonable 
that they should strive " to hasten the time when every 
" human being in this republic shall enjoy the inalien- 
" able right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
" ness." Here then was a distinct proclamation sent to 
every State in the Union, by Massachusetts, as the 
head of the New England States, that slavery in her 
opinion was abohshed by the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence in every State of the Union, that it would be 
her duty to strive to enforce a perfect political equality 
of all the races, and that the introduction of another 
slave State would endanger the peace of the country 
and drive the New England States into a dissolution of 
the Union. When this resolution was presented to 
Congress, Senator King, from Alabama, one of the 
most moderate and conservative Southern statesmen, as 
we have already seen, expressed his regret that a propo- 



242 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

sition should thus come fi'om Massachusetts to dissolve 
the Union. What was a source of regret to Mr. King, 
was a source of indignation to the mass of Southern 
people who had been constantly denounced as dis- 
Unionists by those who had goaded them almost to 
desperation, and who were now calmly considering the 
value of the Union when about to be defeated in their 
desire to obtain, upon geographical lines and for par- 
tisan purposes, control of the Senate of the United 
States. 

Finally, Massachusetts passed another series of reso- 
lutions, and transmitted them to Congress and to all the 
J States, in which she resolved, that as, in her opinion. 
Congress had no right, under the Constitution, to 
admit Texas by legislation into the Union, " such an 
" act of admission would have no binding force whatever 
" on the people of Massachusetts''' Here was a definite 
and distinct re-affirmation of the principles enunciated 
by the Hartford Convention. Massachusetts was to 
judge for herself of a violation of the Constitution. 
Any act passed by Congress for the admission of 
Texas was to be treated as a nullity. The fact that 
practically no occasion could arise under which Massa- 
chusetts could put her nullification resolutions into 
operation could not palliate such language. The wish, 
the words, the intent, the principle of nullification were 
all as clearly revealed, understood and adopted, as 
though a regiment of militia stood drawn up at Boston 
common to resist the collection of imports by the 
officers of the custom house. 

To leave no doubt of the violent intentions of New 
England, John Quincy Adams, in his address to his 
constituents, made use of language calculated to arouse 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 243 

a warlike spirit in the breast of his followers, and to 
inflame still more the spirit of the South. Said he : 

" Texas and Slavery are interwoven in every banner . . 
" floating to the Democratic breeze. Freedom or 
" Death should be inscribed on ours. A war for 
" slavery ! Can you enlist under such a standard ? 
" May the Ruler of the Universe preserve you from 
" such degradation. ' Freedom, Peace, Union,' be this 
" the watchword of your camp, and if Ate, hot from 
*' hell, will come and cry ' Havock ' — fight — fight and 
" conquer, under the banner of universal fireedom ! " 

As the Federal party of New England sympathized 
with Great Britain in ]812, so now they so far sympa- 
thized with Mexico, in their desire to curb the South 
and restrict its fi:ee-trade power, that through the voice 
of one of their leaders they expressed the hope that a 
foreign government would welcome our patriotic troops 
'' with bloody hands to hospitable graves." 

While Massachusetts was thus heading the Abolition 
disunion movement, flooding Congress and the States 
with menacing resolutions, sending agents to the 
southern ports under the pretense of looking after the 
interests of negro sailors, denouncing the spirit of com- 
promise, advocating equal political rights for all men 
under the Declaration of Independence, destroying 
peace between the sections, and nullifying an act of 
Congress, the State of South Carolina was not slow to 
meet her half way. At the head of the States-Rights 
party she replied, to all menaces, that Texas had as 
much right to join the Union as though she had been 
a part of our territory; that her annexation was material 
to the commercial prosperity of the whole Union, and 
especially of the Gulf States 5 that it was not cei'taift 



244 THE CRADLE OF THE COKFEDERACY. 

that her admission would accrue to the power of the 
slave States, in as much as her territory was so great' 
and so sparsely settled that two or three free States 
might yet be carved from her, and that whether she 
appUed for admission with slavery or without, was a 
matter entirely with herself, and in no event could be 
A violation of the Constitution. Finally, wrought up to 
^the highest pitch of indignation, South Carolina and 
the States-Rights party declared that a refusal to admit 
Texas upon the grounds stated in the Massachusetts 
resolutions would be good cause for a dissolution of the 
Union. 

■ Those who in their public writings have placed the 
origin of the spirit of disunion in the breast of the 
South, have not ceased to allege that at that day the 
agitation for disunion began in South Carolina. Senator 
Benton in his " Thkty years' view," says that so soon 
as Mr. Polk was nominated, " the disunion aspect man- 
" ifested itself over many of the Southern States — 
" beginning, of course, with South CaroHna." This is 
so far from being the truth that it was as late as May, 
1844, when the first meeting was held in South Car- 
olina. It was a meeting to retaliate against Massa- 
chusetts, who had passed her disunion resolutions in 
the autumn of 1843. It was held at Ashley, in the 
Barnwell district, and its intention was to combine the 
slave States in a convention, to unite the Southern 
States to Texas, if Texas should not be received into 
the Union, and to invite the President to convene Con- 
gress to arrange terms for a dissolution of the Union. 
Another large meeting was held at Beaufort, another 
at Charleston, and another at the Williamsburg district, 
at which resolutions looking to the same end were 
adopted. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 245 

During this controversy the State of Alabama was 
ardently in favor of the annexation of Texas ; but it is 
certain that a majority of her people would not have 
favored disunion in the event of a refusal of Congress 
to admit that State. She was emphatic in her reply to 
the resolutions and conduct of Massachusetts. Her 
General Assembly decided unanimously that the abro- 
gation of the twenty-first rule, by which Congress had 
refused to consider abolition petitions, was a hostile act 
on the part of the North, and that South CaroHna had 
a right to protect the peace and happiness of her peo- 
ple, by sending back the agent of Massachusetts, who 
had been delegated as an attorney to look after the 
interest of negro sailors who might be citizens of Mas- 
sachusetts. Still the Whig party of Alabama, and 
very many of the Democratic party, denied the right of 
a State to disunite itself from the Union except in the 
last resort, and they believed that the acceptance or 
rejection of Texas by Congress was not adequate cause 
for secession. The Democratic party, embracing the 
States-Rights party, and receiving a large coloring 
of its principles from that wing of its army, were 
charged by its opponents with being disunionists. 
The banner of " Texas or Disunion," which was being 
flaunted throughout the South, was almost invariably 
in Democratic hands, and hence the Whig party took 
advantage of the acts and words of the States-Rights 
men to stamp the Democratic as the Disunion party, 
and to claim for themselves the distinction of being the 
Union party. Nor was it possible for the Democrats 
to retaliate upon the Whigs by saying that if the dis- 
union element at the South were the allies of the former, 
the disunion element at the North were the allies of 



V 



246 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

the latter, since it was a matter of record that the dis- 
union sentiments of Massachusetts were expressed by 
both Whig and Democratic Legislatures, and that the 
Abolition press were intent upon breaking up the Whig 
party at the North as the great barrier in their way to 
disunion. If the Whig Governor of Massachusetts, in 
1844, had embraced the Abolitionists, he only followed 
in the footsteps of the Democi'atic Governor of 1848. 
If the Northern Whigs voted to repeal the 2 1st rule, 
so did forty-seven Northern Democrats. And in the 
Presidential election which followed, the Wh[G3 could 
point triumphantly to the fact that Mr. Polk had been 
elected President by the Disunion element of the North. 
The candidacy of Mr. Birney by the Anti-slavery party 
drew away enough votes in New York to have elected 
Mr. Clay, just as the candidacy of Mr. VanBuren in 
1848 drew away enough votes to have elected General 
Cass. They could also point to the fact that Mr. Bir- 
NF-Y, while Abolition candidate for the Presidency, was 
at the same time the regular Democratic nominee for 
the Michigan Legislatui'e. The truth is, the Abolition 
party acted with either or neither of the regular par- 
ties, as its interests suggested, struggling to consolidate 
the anti-slavery sentiments of both Whigs and Demo- 
crats into a new geographical party which, while pre- 
tending the amelioration of the human race upon high 
humanitarian principles, was actually intending to revert 
the Government to the views, hopes and wishes of Gen- 
eral Hamilton and the Federalists. 

When at last the Whig party of the North passed 
away, it is difficult to say whether the major portion, or 
what portion, of that party, went to form the new Re- 
publican party. If leading Whigs like Seward, Gree- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 2i7 

LEY and Lincoln were to be found within its ranks, so 
also among its leaders were to be found Democrats like 
BiRNEY, Chase, Hamlin and Cameron, The Republi- 
can party professed to be built upon the ruins of both 
the Whig and Democratic parties of the North, and it 
would not be far from the mark to say that as many 
Whigs went into the Democratic ranks after the defeat 
of General Scott as into the Republican ranks ; and 
that the latter party drew its followers as largely from 
the one old party as the other. However this may be, 
the Whigs of the South were not to be deterred from 
their zealous advocacy of the Union by the charge, on 
the one hand, that their brother Whigs of the North 
were allied with the Abolition party ; nor by the charge, 
on the other hand, that the cry of " Union " was now 
become synonymous with that of " submission." 

The Whigs of Alabama in their protest against the 
Cry of " Texas or disunion,', which had thundered V 
forth from the States-Rights men in response to the 
New England threat of " rejection of Texas or dis- 
" union," were joined in sentiment and sympathy by 
hosts of Southern Democrats. The movement in New 
England took no positive form beyond words. The 
movement in South Carolina assumed an active form. 
A convention of the Southern States was called for, to 
meet at Nashville, to lay down the ultimatum. The 
resolutions of the South Carolina meeting met a response 
in several of the Southern States. A meeting held 
in Alabama suggested that the convention meet at 
Richmond. In reply to this suggestion, Mr. Ritchie, 
editor of the Enquirer, said : " There is not a Dem- 
*' ocrat in Virginia who will encourage any plot to dis- 
"•' solve the Union." The Richmond Whig^ on the part 



248 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

of the Whigs, repudiated the suggestion with indigna- 
tion. Nashville was not behind Richmond in dedining 
the honor of being the seat of the disunion convention. 
A meeting of her citizens protested against " the dese- 
" oration of the soil of Tennessee, by having any con- 
" vention held there to hatch treason against the 
"•Union." The resolutions adopted by the Nashville 
meetino- were those which marked the councils of the 
Whigs throughout the South. They condemned every 
attempt to bring into issue the preservation of the 
Union, or to bring its value into calculation. While 
entertaining for the people of South Carolina and for 
the States-Riiihts party everywhere, the most fraternal 
regard and the highest respect for the sincerity of their 
opinions, they lamented the exhibition by any portion 
of them of disloyalty to the Union, or a disposition to 
urge its dissolution with a view to annexation with 
Texas, and the construction of a Southwestern repubhc 
such as was contemplated by Aaron Burr. 

The proposition lor the Nashville convention met 
such powerful opposition that the hopes and prospects 
of the Whigs brightened throughout the South. The 
plan was discarded ; Mr. Polk was elected ; the tact 
and promptness of President Tyler hastened and 
secured the admission of Texas, to the confusion of 
New England and the satisfaction of the entire South. 

The vote in the State of Alabama was for Mr. Polk, 
36,740; for Mr. Clay, 2G,084. The States-Rights 
party had grown in strength since 1840, and had 
taken two thousand voters from the Whigs and added 
them to their allies. Apart from this defection which 
was more than made good at the next Presidential 
election, the Whi&s were as earnest and enthusiastic for 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 249 

Clay as they had been for Harrison. The same old 
leaders who guided the party in 1840, were at its head 
in 1844. 

The action of President Tyler in securing the admis- 
sion of Texas in the last days of his Presidency, was 
followed by the war with Mexico and the ultimate cap- 
ture of the capital of that nation. The first troops 
within the fortifications of Mexico were a South Caro- 
lina regiment, and the first flag that floated over the 
city was that of "the Palmettoes." General Quitman, 
the gallant son of Mississippi, was designated as the 
officer to receive the surrender of the city and to hoist 
the flag of the United States over a conquered nation. 

The war with Mexico exerted a great influence in 
many respects upon the mind of the whole country. 
By extending the southwestern frontier it opened the 
slavery agitation anew, and more painfully than ever at 
the North ; and at the South it aroused closer attention 
from those leading spirits who had participated in the 
war, to a more thorough consideration of what would be 
the condition of the Gulf States if the Free Soil party 
should succeed in accomplishing emancipation, and in 
bringing about that political equality which has inva- 
riably followed emancipation. 

Mexico, in less than a quarter of a century, had fol- 
lowed all the routes that lead a republic to anarchy. Her 
weakness was not in her situation, her material resources, 
nor in her climate. All of these were admirable. She 
possessed as magnificent a land as the God of nature 
ever smiled upon — a land which claimed the flora of 
both continents, and which reveled in every plant that 
could be grown on the habitable globe ; grand forests of 
every description of timber, numberless droves of wild 



250 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDEEACY. 

cattle, birds of the brightest plumage and most ravish- 
ing song ; a climate offering every degree of tempera- 
ture, and mines of precious metal which for centuries 
had sustained the tottering thrones of Spain. Possess- 
ing every natural advantage which a government might 
wish, the American army found the Mexican nation 
rotten to the core. The people were overshadowed by 
a church, whose vast wealth gave them a temporal 
power even greater than the spiritual power. The reli- 
gious corporations which controlled the monasteries and 
nunneries, and the secular corporations which controlled 
the mines, had added riches to riches, while the mass of 
people grew poorer and poorer. 

The power of the corporations gave preferment in the 
army, and hence ambitious Mexicans, leaning to the 
money influence in order to rise in office rapidly and 
to reap an early fortune, regarded as little the letter of 
constitutions as they did the wants and necessities of 
the people. Hence in twenty years there had been 
forty revolutions. The rise and fall of parties, the 
overthrow and resurrection of Presidents, Emperors and 
Dictators followed each other in such rapid succession 
that the events and even the names of leaders have 
perished from memory. 

The church and the army combined, possessing the 
purse and the sword, leaned constantly towards central- 
ism. To preserve the independence of the States, or 
even the form of a Federal Republic, under such cir- 
cumstances, was an impossibility. An ignorant country 
people cared nothing for the rights of the States so long 
as they could get offices in the army or employment at 
the mines ; even at the capital the people saw their 
city surrendered as the battle-field of all the political 
aspirants who had won reputation in the camp. 



'vim CRADL1E OP TfiE CONPEDERACllY. 251 

This country of seven millions of people, twice as 
prosperous as were the colonies of Anglo-Saxons when 
they threw off the yoke of Great Britain, was now in- 
vaded by an army which assaulted their capital with 
less than six thousand men. This handful of invaders 
had landed under the walls of a strong sea fortification, 
had marched through almost impassable defdes and over 
easily obstructed mountains, had broken through a 
triple line of defences bristling with the most approved 
artillery and defended by an army of forty thousand 
Mexicans, and had finally fought its way along narrow 
causeways into a city so populous that had the people 
been possessed of half the spirit of the women of Sala- 
manca, they could have annihilated the enemy by hurl- 
ing hand grenades from the house tops. 

The Anglo-Saxon, when overthrown or conquered, 
never fawns at the feet of the conqueror. The descend- 
ants of Alfred and Harold preserved their dignity 
and their customs under the Norman invader, and the 
Saxons of Holstein and Sciileswig brooked the Dan- 
ish yoke with such impatience that they readily rallied 
to the banner of Prussia. Julius Cesar, with the 
legions of imperial Rome, could not subdue those stal- 
wart, blue-eyed, flaxen-haired warriors of the wilderness. 
But the mongrel population of Mexico threw them- 
selves at the feet of the conqueror and offered him a 
crown. On taking possession of the city of Mexico, 
such was the order and security for life and property 
established by the American General that at least two- 
fifths of all the branches of government, including very 
nearly a majority of the members of Congress and the 
Executive, were anxious for annexation to the United 
States. Men in and out of office, of great influence, 



252 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

approached General Scott privately and offered to place 
at his disposal one million of dollars if he would remain 
in and govern Mexico. They knew that upon the rati- 
fication of the treaty of peace nineteen out of twenty 
of the army would be disbanded and would be free to 
enlist under any banner. It was expected that a large 
portion of the troops would be eager to serve as the 
fovored guards of an American dynasty. One-third 
more was to be added to the pay of those officers and 
men who would engage in the proposed movement. 
New regiments of volunteers were arriving daily, and 
these, more readily than the others, were expected to 
be carried away by the novel project. Ten thousand 
Americans were counted upon as a nucleus, and this 
force could be greatly increased by recruits from New 
Orleans and Mobile. A salary of $250,000 per annum 
was offered General Scott. All the fortresses, all the 
armies of the country, all the custom-houses were already 
in his hands. A distribution of a little money, or the 
arrest of those who were opposed to the scheme, would 
easily secure a favorable vote of the Mexican Congress ; 
and then nothing was left to obstruct the mounting of 
the American General to the Mexican throne, with as 
much ease as Bernadotte ascended the throne of Swe- 
den. This offer, so shameful to the Mexicans, was re- 
jected for two reasons, as given by General Scott him- 
self The first reason was, that he could not honorably 
resign from under his own flag except to add to the 
glory of his country by immediate annexation of 
Mexico to the United States. Such a reason, as clear 
as the sunlight to an Anglo-Saxon, could not be appre- 
ciated by the average Mexican. The second reason 
was that, as there were but one million of pure-blooded 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 253 

white men in Mexico, and six millions of Indians and 
mixed Indians, Negroes and Spaniards, the American 
General believed that the annexation of such a free 
population to the United States would be an injury to 
his country. « 

The soldiers mingled with the people, and soon dis- 
covered the intrigues into which their shameless enemy 
was entering. They repelled the proposition as earnestly 
as did their commander. If General Scott, who was 
no peculiar friend of the South, could discountenance a 
brilliant oiler of empire because of the character of the 
population, the volunteers of the South who composed 
two-thirds of the army, could not for a moment con- 
sider a scheme by which six millions of people of de- 
based blood and debased ideas were to be incorporated 
into a Republican Government which owed all of its 
vigor and glory to the unsullied and untainted blood of 
the Anglo-Saxon. 

Of the seven millions of Mexicans only one million 
were white men. Three millions were Indians ; and 
three millions were Mulattoe's, Mestizoes and Samboes. 
The Samboes were a cross of the white man and the 
Negro, the white man and the Indian, and the Negro 
and the Indian, with all the intermediate shades and 
degrees of debased blood resulting from a union of the 
Mestizo with the Sambo, and the Mulatto with both. 
Many millions of white men had come and gone in the 
lapse of three centuries ; many hundreds of thousands 
of Negro slaves had been imported and had perished ; 
many millions of Indians had been swept away by the 
brutality of Cortez and his successors, and now the 
Hepublic of Mexico exhibited to the young Southerner 
who stood guard before the halls of the Montezuma 



254 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

the singular spectacle of a nation composed mainly of 
half-breeds, whose color was gradually year by year 
assuming a darker shade, until it nmst eventually go 
back to the copper complexion of the aborigines. 
This Republic of half-brepds, although generaled in the 
Senate, in the army, and in the church, by pure-blooded 
white men, was the miserable thing which taught the 
high-spirited SSoutherner that the strength of a nation 
depends more upon the race than upon the govern- 
ment. 

The Government of Mexico is modeled after that 
of the United States ; but what the pure-blooded An- 
glo-Saxon could accompUsh, the mind of the dark 
races of Central America could not even compass. 
While the former advanced with the tread of a giant, 
driving the copper-colored race towards the Rocky 
Mountains, and holding the black race in servitude, 
Mexico surrendered to the optimistic ideas of natural 
race equality, which were sweeping over France and 
the Iberian peninsular. While the United States, with 
a homogeneous population of citizens, bounded to the 
front rank of nations, her mongrel sister Republic fell 
to the earth before a single feeble blow from a handful 
of brave and intelligent white men, under the lead of 
General Scott.. 

The gallant troops of South Carolina, Georgia, Ala-, 
bama and Mississippi, which followed the banner of 
John A. Quitman and Jefferson Davis, on the bloody 
field of Buena Vista, and at the Belan Gate of . iexico, 
understood even at that early day that in a Republic 
there could be no intermediate station between the slave 
and the freeman. A freedman, without civil and polit- 
ical rights, without ultimate incorporation into the body 



THE CBADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 255 

politic, was a being unknown to the history of Repub- 
lics. So soon as emancipation was accomplished, the 
tendency would inevitably be towards the retention of 
the freedman by the land owner, and his permanent 
fixture to the soil. What would happen then in a 
State Hke South Carolina, Mississippi or Louisiana, 
where the Negro race predominated, would be what had 
happened in Mexico. Even in the States of Georgia, 
Alabama and Florida, where mercenary white men 
might unite their fortunes with the black race it was 
possible that the whites would lose their ascendancy. 
The movement of the emancipated Negroes would be 
towards the Gulf States. White immigrants would 
loathe a line of march in which they would be doomed 
to such fellowship : and thus the fairest part of the 
South would be given up to the political power of the 
Negro. This poHtical power would step by step ac- 
quire social power, and whether within or without the 
bond of wedlock, would finally blast the cotton pro- 
ducing region with a race of hybrids. How many 
years would be necessary for such a result to be reached 
could only be surmised ; but certain it was that in less 
than half a century the Castilian Vice Kingdom of 
New Spain had cut loose from its typical white man's 
Government, and had become a Republic incapable of 
self-protection. 

To the soldiers of the South, it appeared that in 
this beautiful but accursed lajid Nature had vindicated 
her physiological law of race. It was said by Horace 
— " Natiiram expellas furcay tamen usque recurreV 
You may turn nature out of doors with violence, but 
she will still return. The diminution of the whites 
removed the source from which the Mulatto received 



256 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. , 

his light shade, and the whole array of colors, Mulatto, 
Mestizo, Quadroon, Creole, Sambo, and Chino, were now 
reverting to the prevailing color, the copper of the 
Indian. 

When Mr. Canning made his celebrated boast in 
Parliament that he had created the Republics of Mexico 
and Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, and the Argentine, he did 
not consider that it was beyond his power to create 
races, and that he was simply giving the inhabitants an 
opportunity to return to the Indian type. The incor- 
poration of all races into the body politic of these repub- 
lics, and the breaking down of all social barriers, simply 
turned back the hand of time three hundred years on 
the dial. The recognition by England of those mon- 
grel nations should have been styled — " a recognition 
" of the return of the New World to the aboriginal 
"Indian population, from whom no good have ever 
" come, and from whom nothing but evil could be ex- 
" pected." Would not the same physiological law hold 
good in the Gulf States ? When the negro shall have 
prevailed in the cotton section, and familiarity shall have 
broken down the social barriers between the races; when 
the half-breeds shall have become so numerous as to 
absorb every vestige of political power ; and when the 
pure whites shall have removed to States in which they 
may be ruled and taxed by men of theu" own color and 
race, will not the hybrids revert rapidly to the purer 
negro type, and thus through successive generations the 
last drop of Anglo-Saxon blood be swallowed up in the 
African ? Such has been the history of Mexico ; why 
might such not be the history of South Carolina ? 

Was it to be hoped that the danger would be averted 
by the supply of new material furnished the Anglo- 



THE OEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 257 

Saxon by the more Northern States? On the con- 
trary, the negroes would become massed in the cotton- 
growing region, and their numbers would increase far 
more by concentration than the whites could increase 
by infiltration from the North. After a few genera- 
tions, it was reasonable to believe, nay, absolutely cer- 
tain, that the hybrids of the Gulf States would exhibit 
qualities identical with those of the mixed races of 
Mexico. 

Impoverished, haughty, uneducated, defiant, bigoted, 
disputatious, without financial credit, beaten in arms, far 
behind the age in mechanical progress or social civiliza- 
tion, and loaded with debt, Mexico presented the mis- 
erable spectacle of a nation without nationalit}^ of no 
distinct race, and reposing honor and confidence in 
worthless military leaders. The people found them- 
selves oppressed by those whom they earessed, a repub- 
lic with all the essential features of a military despot- 
ism, a lawless nation which would be more serviceable 
to the human race were it to revert once more to that 
aboriginal race which at least built the halls of the 
Montezumas. 

Would not such be the fate of the fairest territory of 
her Anglo-Saxon sister, when four millions of unedu- 
cated negroes and mulattoes, incapable of reading the 
ballots which they cast for mihtary chieftains, assume 
to legislate for the Anglo-Saxon race, to hold the bal- 
ance of power in Presidential elections, and to guide 
the civilization of the 1 9th century as PHiETON attempted 
to guide the chariot of the sun when he was wrecked 
on the deserts of Africa ? 



CHx^I^TER XI. 



William L. Yancey and the Montgomery JDistrict — The 
Alabama Democratic B.esolutions of ISJ^S — General 
Cass and the States-Riyhts Party — The Nashiiille Con- 
vention and Defeat of the ^Secessionists — The Compro- 
mise Measures of Clay — Triumph of the Union Party 
all over the South — Defeat of Governors iSeabrooJc and 
Quitman — The Georgia, Uesolutions — Union Leaders 
and Sentimetit in Alabama, tfcc, tOo. 



" Two great powers that will not live together are in our midst, tug- 
ging at each other's throats. They will searcli each other out though you 
separate them a hundred times. And if hy an insane hlindness you 
shall contrive to put oil" the issue and send their unsettled dispute down 
to your children, it will go down gathering volume and strength at every 
step, to waste and desolate their heritage. Let it be settled now. Oiear 
the place. Bring in the champions. Let them put their lances in rest 
for the charge. Sound the trumpet, and God save the right !" 

Henry Wakd Beechek. 



" We confess that we intend to trample under foot the Constitution of 
this country. Daniel Webster says ' you are a law-abiding people,' that 
the glory of New England is 'that it is a law-abiding community. 
Shame on it if this be true; if even the religion of New England sinks 
as low as its statute book. But I say we are not a law-abidiug commu- 
nity. God be thanked for it." 

Wendell Phillips, March, 1849. 



The conquest of Mexico, and the eagerness with 
which the notables of that country embraced the idea 
of annexation to the United States, led to the hope in 
the Southern mind, that not only Texas and a part of 
Mexican territor}^, but the entire republic, might be 
acquired as a result of the war. General Quitman 
hastened to Washington and laid before the President 
a plan for permanent occupation of the country. The 



260 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

plan was rejected ; it was very difficult to annex any 
portion of Mexico. The enemies of Southern expan- 
sion had fought hard against Texas. They would fight 
still harder to make free territory of the Mexican acqui- 
sition. They would listen to no scheme for more 
territory. The treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo was 
signed and ratified, and the American army disbanded. 
At the close of the Mexican war, the Alabama Con- 
gressional District, of which Montgomery was the prin- 
cipal town, was one of the most flourishing regions 
upon earth. The people were possessed of luxuriant 
cotton lands and of innumerable slaves. They were 
for the most part wealthy, educated and accomplished. 
The art of agriculture was carried to the highest point 
of success, and the theory of government was the uni- 
versal study of the citizens. The city of Montgomery, 
the birth-place of the Confederacy, had been for years 
the residence of a man whose brilliant genius had been 
laboriously trained and who was destined to be a leader 
in those movements which were to make Montgomery 
famous in history for all time to come. William 
Lowndes Yancey, a logician of a high order of intellect 
and an orator of most captivating address, was then in 
the meridian of his powers. He was a States-Uights 
man of the most extreme school, a devoted follower of 
Calhoun. Believing that the anti-slavery movement 
would not cease until it invaded and destroyed the 
South, not only politically, but socially and commer- 
cially, he opposei.l at every step all efibrts at compro- 
mise. He demanded the full measure of constitutional 
justice to the South. The North had no right to put 
a collar of shame upon the neck ol the South by her 
Missouri compromise lines, by her denial of equal pro- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 2Cl 

tection to all kinds of property in the common terri- 
tory. With Yancey it was not enough to say that 
slavery could never go north of thirty-six degrees thirty 
minutes, and that it was immaterial to debate about 
slavery extension when there were not enough slaves to 
thoroughly develop the slave States. With him, the 
denial of a right, however abstract, was an act of injus- 
tice and oppression. The injustice must be remedied 
or there could be no peace. A denial of justice was a 
badge of superiority, and he would never consent to 
live in union with a people who would refuse him any 
muniment of right given him by law. Impulsive as a 
mountain torrent dashing over rocks, his eloquence had 
a boldness, a coolness, a transparency which challenged 
admiration. There was nothing of the froth of decla- 
mation in his speech, but every leap of the torrent 
struck a resounding blow, bearing away all opposition 
and sweeping the debris before it, until it spread out 
into a broad, placid, irresistible current. What Patrick 
Henry was to the first American Revolution, William 
L. Yancey was to the second. But Yancey possessed 
that which Patrick Henry did not have — cultivation, a 
thorough acquaintance with governmental law, and a 
wonderful command of vigorous English. 

Henry 8. Foote, who played so conspicuous a part 
as Governor of Mississippi and United States Senator 
from that State during the Union contest of 1849-50, 
and who was subsequently a member of the Confederate 
Congress with Mr Yancey, has given a very just de- 
scription of this remarkable leader and orator. He 
says : " There was, in Mr. Yancey's person, at least in 
" his latter days, but little to impress the casual behold- 
'" er, or to enkindle the sympathies of those who had no 



2G2 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" special intercourse with him. In stature he was rather 
'• below than above the height of ordinary men. His 
" face was well shaped, but neither strikingly handst)me 
" or the reverse. His vestments were quite remarkable 
" for their plainness and simplicity, and did not always 
" fit him as well as they might have done. His aspect 
" was in general somewhat lacking in animation, and 
" often betrayed tokens of nervous exhaustion. His 
" manners were decidedly reserved, with a percepti- 
" ble approximation of moroseness. He made no at- 
" tempt to shine in ordinary converse. It is known 
" that he had studied men closely, and had looked 
" deeply into the motives and purposes of those with 
" whom* he had held intercourse, or whose movements 
" in public life had specially attracted his attention. In 
" general he was able to keep the tempestuous feelings 
'• of his soul in a state of stoical suppression ; but occa- 
" sions sometimes arose when, either having lost his 
" accustomed power of self-control, or deeming it expe- 
" dient to make some display of the stormier energies 
" with which he was endowed, he unloosed all the furies 
'• under his command upon some noted antagonist, and 
" did and ^aid things which those who witnessed his 
" sublime ravings never again forgot. * * 

" In my judgment, the JSouth has contained within 
" her limits no such eloquent and effective political 
" speaker as Win. L. Yancey since the death of George 
'•' McDulKe. When rising to discuss a question of 
'' special dignity and importance, his aspect and inan- 
'' ner were marked with mingled earnestness and solein- 
" nity. His exordium was always uttered with an 
" imposing slowness and ibrmality. He enunciated 
" every word and syllable distinctly. His voice was 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 2()3 

" clear, strong and sonorous. He commonly spoke in 
" the conversational tone, a little elevated. His ges- 
" tures were few, but these were most apt and impres- 
" sive. He never addressed either a deliberative body 
*•' or a popular audience without having previously mas- 
" tered the subject, upon which he was expected to 
" dilate, in all its parts. His acute and well-balanced 
" intellect, supplied as it was with vast stores of informa- 
" tion of almost every kind, generally enabled him to 
" anticipate and respond effectually to whatever might 
*' be said by his adversaries in debate. His powers of 
" sarcasm were tremendous^ and he sometimes indulged 
" in a bitter and sneerful ridicule which was very dilfi- 
" cult to tolerate patiently. The greatest of his speeches 
" in Richmond was that which he deUvered upon what 
"■ was known as the Judiciary question, in which he 
" took strong ground against conferring appellate juris- 
" diction upon the Coniederate Supreme Court in cases 
" originating in the State courts. I had the satisfaction 
" of hearing the whole of his elaborate argument on 
" this occasion, and can declare that it seemed to me to 
" be nearly equal in vigor, brUiiancy and classic orna- 
" ment to some of the best speeches of Webster or 
" Pinckney. Arthur F. Hopkins sat by my side on 
" this interesting occasion, and exclaimed to me more 
" than once that he was now thoroughly convinced that 
" Mr. Yancey was by far the ablest of Uving speakers. 
'' I have already said that Mr. Yancey had much 
" hand in the origination of the late civil war, and such 
" was certainly the case ; but in regard to his conduct 
" in this respect, I have long since ceased to censure 
"' him with bitterness. Trained in the days of his open- 
'"' ing manhood in the extreme States-Rights school of 



264 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" the South, he very naturally adopted certain plausible 
" dogmas, to the support of which he afterwards devoted 
" the best energies of his splendid and gigantic intel- 
" lect. He really believed that, under our system of 
" government, the States are absolutely sovereign, 
" bound together only by a league which they may at 
" any moment dissolve, and that the Federal Govern- 
" ernnient, owing its origin to States, as such, is a mere 
" agency established by them for purposes of conveni- 
" ence, and has no powers whatever save those which 
" have been formally and specifically conceded to it. 
" He devoutly beheved, with Mr. Calhoun, that African 
" slavery wns a vital and indispensable ingredient of the 
" system of polity established by our fathers ; that, 
" without it, no fieedom, worthy of the name, could be 
" enjoyed by the white race of this continent, and that 
" the more widely diffused it might become, the more 
" prosperous and happy would be the whole republic. 

" Entertaining these views, it is not at all wonderful 
" that Mr. Yancey should have sought to engraft upon 
"the Democratic political platform of 1S48 a resolu- 
" tion ailirmatively protective of slavery in the terri- 
" tories. It as little surprising that he and those agree- 
'• ing with him in sentiment should advocate disunion 
"in 1851, because of the admission of California as a 
" free State ; that they should have made an attempt 
"in 18GI to persuade the Democratic party to take 
" an ' aggressive attitude' in behalf of slavery; that, 
" fiiiling in this, he and they should have attempted to 
" disintcjgrate that party ; and that when, by these pro- 
" ceediugs, t,he election of a Re[»ublican President was 
" brought about, secession was at once resolved on as 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERAOY. 265 

" the only means left, in their opinion, of saving Afri- 
" can slavery from ultimate extermination. 

" I repeat that, far as I am, and have ever been, 
" from coinciding with Mr. Yancey and bis States- 
" Rights adherents as to these matters, I am not at till 
" inclined, at this moment, to heap opprobrium upon his 
" memory. His sincerity in utterance of his opinions 
" I do not at all question, and it is due to him to say 
" that his conduct in Richmond as a legislator, during 
" the trying years of the war of the Rebellion, was in 
" the highest degree marked with consistency, firmness 
" and manly independence. Whatever else may be 
"justly said by enemies of Wm. L. Yancey, these 
" truths may be safely asserted of him ; he never 
" sought to make money by the war ; he ever opposed 
" the suspension of habeas corpus — a measure so bane- 
" ful to individual freedom ; he never gave his assent 
" to the displacement of able and gallant military com- 
" manders, in order to make way for the incompetent 
" favorites of a prejudiced and self-willed executive 
" chief; he never' proposed to murder in cold blood all 
" the prisoners taken in war [nor did any other Confed- 
" erate leader propose such a thing. —Author]; he never 
" introduced a- bill pioviding for the permanent establish- 
" ment of mai-tial law ; he never united in a scheme for 
" the coercing of one of the States deemed by him sover- 
" eign, and constraining it to remain in a confederacy 
" after it had become heartily disgusted with it, and 
" wished to rotuin to the Federal Union ; he never voted 
" for a bill providing for the payment of the s;dary of 
" the Confederate President in gold, whilst the Con- 
" federate soldiers, in rags and barefoot, were refused 
'^ the wretched pittance of depreciated paper which they 



266 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" had been allowed by law ; he had no hand in the 
" unpardonable burning of Richmond, and, had he ,sur- 
" vived so long as the month of December, 1 864 — 
" seeing the ruin then impending over the Confederate 
" cause — he would, I feel perfectly assured, have urged, 
" with all the eloquence at his'command, the making of 
" peace with the Federal Government, on the honorable 
" and advantageous terms at that time offered by Mr. 
" Lincoln, as all intelligent men now know. 

" Future generations will undoubtedl}'^ recognize 
" Wm. L. Yancey as one of the ablest, most far-seeing, 
" and most statesmanlike personages that took part in 
" the Confederate struggle, as he was undeniably one of 
" the most profound jurists and most eloquent advo- 
*' cates that have ever adorned the bar of the South 
" and Southwest." 

Upon the appointment of Senator Wm. R. King to 
the French mission, and the election of Dixon II. 
Lewis to succeed him in the Senate, the seat vacated 
by Mr. Lewis in the Lower House was filled by the 
election of Mr. Yancey. At the next election Mr. 
Yancey was again elected to Congress, but in conse- 
quence of poverty, resigned the seat before the expira- 
tion of his term. At the present day when we see 
poor men entering Congress and amassing great wealth 
in a few years, it may astonish many that a man of 
Yancey's transcendant eloquence and ability should 
find no means of acquiring money at Washington, 
apart from his meagre salary. The astonishment of 
such persons would be increased when they are told 
that in that day no one dared to make presents, or give 
money or olfer bribes in the shape of large dividends 



THE CRADLJE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 267 

on nominal investments, to a representative from the 
South. 

Mr. Yancey was the acknowledged leader of the 
States-Ri<i,hts wing of the Democratic party. The 
States-Rights men had gradually grown in strength, 
just as the aggressions of the Abolitionists became 
bolder, more insulting and more harassing ; and after 
the Mexican war there was but little diflerence between 
them and their alhes, except as to the proper remedy 
for grievances. One point of difference however, which 
afterwards was swept away by the violence of sectional 
passion, was well defined towards the close of Mr. 
Polk's administration. It was as to the power of Con- 
gress, in establishing rules and regulations for the gov- 
ernment of a territory, to exclude slavery therefrom or 
to empower the territorial legislature, its own agent, to 
enact such exclusion. 

Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Yancey and the States-Rights 
men, after 1 847, denied this power in Congress. A 
large, perhaps the greater portion of the Democratic 
party, before that date and for several years after, ad- 
mitted the power. It is certain that the Whig party of 
the South generally admitted it down to the decision in 
the Drod Scott ca e. What is known as the Missouri 
Compromise, the act by which Congress forbid slavery 
in all the territory north of thirty-six degrees thirty 
minutes, was secured by Southern votes. Lowndes of 
South Carolina, King and Walker of Alabama, Pinck- 
NEY of Maryland, Macon of North Carolina, Barbour 
and Pleasants of Virginia, Smith of South Carolina, 
Elliott and Walker of Georgia, all voted for its reten- 
tion.- Had it not been supported by the South it could 
never have prevailed. It is true, that without it Mis- 



268 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

souri might not have been admitted as a slave State ; 
but an inconvenience like that would not have per- 
suaded such men to sustain the measure if they had 
believed it to be unconstitutional. Mr. Monroe held it 
to be a constitutional measure. His Cabinet, according 
to his own recollection, and according to the diary of 
Mr. John Quincy Adams, gave it as their unanimous 
opinion that the act was constitutional. It was held to 
be constitutional by the- large bulk of both the Whig 
and Democratic parties, who pointed to it as a sacred 
compact for more than thirty years. Had they believed 
it to be unconstitutional they would never have regard- 
ed it as sacred. 

No question was made as to this power in Congress 
as late as the admission of Texas into the Union. The 
joint resolution by which Texas was admitted, provided 
that " in such States as might be formed out of said 
" tei'ritory north of said Missouri Compromise line 
" slavery or involuntary servitude, except for crime, 
" shall bo prohibited." This measure received the votes 
of all the States-Rights men of the House. The whole 
South, Whig and Democrat alike, voted for it. When 
it went to the Senate, Mr. Buchanan said that he was 
pleased with it because " these resolutions went to re-es- 
" tjiblish the Missouri Compromise, by fixing a line 
" within which slavery was in future to be confined." 
As the joint resolution could not become operative for 
the prohibition of slavery in any part of her territory 
until Texas had actually become a State in the Union, 
it would appear that this act of Congi'ess went fui-tlier 
fan the Wilmot Proviso, and actually elfected the abo- 
lition ot slavery in a portion of a sovereign State. No 
part of Texas had ever become or would ever become 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERACY. 269 

a territory of the United States. Again, when the bill 
for organizing the territory of Oregon was before Con- 
gress in 1847, Mr. Burt, of South Carolina, moved the 
recognition of the Missouri Compromise line, and every 
Southern member voted for it. Subsequently, in the 
^?enate, in 1848, upon a motion to extend the Missouri 
line to the Pacific, the South voted for it unanimously. 
The Nashville Convention of 1851 favored the Missouri 
Compromise, and the caucus of Southern Congressmen, 
throui^h their committee of fifteen, accepted this line, 
and adopted it as a settlement of disputes. Calhoun, as 
a member of President Monroe's cabinet, did not object 
to, even if he questioned, the constitutionality of the 
power of Congress to preclude slavery from the territo- 
ries. And sOj'as late as 1848, although opposed to the 
principle of the Missouri Compromise, he gave it his 
support in the case of Oregon. For nearly thirty years 
neither he nor any other States-Rights leader ques- 
tioned the constitutionality of the act. Mr. Yancey 
was among those Southern members of Congress who 
voted to apply the Missouri Compromise to the northern 
portion of Texas. By this vote he distinctly recog- 
nized the power of Congress to prohibit the existence 
of slavery in a future State which might be constructed 
from that of Texas, whether that State should apply 
with a constitution recognizing slavery or not. 

Alexander IT. Stephens, one of the most pronounced 
of the States-Rights school, as late as 1854, said from 
his seat in Congress — " I say nothing of the constitu- 
" tional view of the question. When I have been asked 
" if Congress does not possess the power to impose re- 
" strictions, or to pass the Wilmot Proviso, I have 
" waived that issue ; I never discuss it. On that point 



270 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" I have told my constituents, and I tell you, I treat it 
" as Chatham treated it in the British Parliament when 
" the question of power to tax the colonies without rep- 
" resentation was raised there. That question Chatham 
" would not discuss ; but he told those who were so 
" unjustly exercising it, that if he were an American 
" he would resist it. The question of power is not the 
" question ; the question is, is it right to exercise it ? " 
It was as late as February, 1847, when Calhoun 
first denied the couvstitutional power of Congress to pro- 
hibit of itself or by its delegated agent, the territorial 
legislature, the introduction or holding of slave property 
in any of the territories. This denial was presented to 
the public in the shape of a series of resolutions intro- 
duced to the Senate. Although the Senate did not act 
upon them, they were taken up and acted upon by 
several of the Southern States. Yancey presented the 
question to the Democratic State Convention which as- 
sembled at Montgomery, 1848, in a series of resolu- 
tions, which declared : 

1. That the opinion advanced and maintained by 
some that the people of a territory, in other event than 
in the formation of a constitu'ion preparatory to admit- 
tance as a State, can prevent the introduction or hold- 
ing of any property, be it slave or otherwise, is a restric- 
tion as indefensible in principle and as dangerous in 
practice as if such restriction had been imposed by 
Congress. 

2. That those who hold that such restrictions may 
be enforced, should not be recognized as Democrats. 

3. That the Democratic party of Alabama arc 
pledged, under any stress of political necessity, not to 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 271 

vote for any one for President or Vice-President who 
holds to such restrictions. 

Yancey advocated these resolutions in a speech as 
concisely logical as that delivered by Mr. Calhoun, and 
with all the fervor and enthusiasm of Henry Clay. 
They were adopted by the Convention. Yancey was 
appointed one of the delegates to the Baltimore Con- 
vention. He wrote to the several gentlemen whose 
names had been spoken of in connection with the nomi- 
nation, asking a response to the Alabama resolutions. 
Mr. Buchanan evasively replied that he favored the 
application of the Missouri Compromise line to the 
newly acquired territory. This was a rejection of the 
resolutions so far as more than half the common terri- 
tory was concerned. General Cass replied that he 
considered the duty of Congress to be limited to the 
creation of a proper government for the territories, 
leaving to the people inhabiting them to regulate their 
internal concerns in their own way. This was a com- 
plete rejection of the resolutions. 

Yancey was sent as a delegate from Alabama to the 
National Democratic Convention, which was to assem- 
ble at Baltimore. Foote, in his " Bench and Bar of the 
Southwest," says : 

" I saw Wm. L. Yancey, for the first time, in the sum- 
" mer of 1848. He had an interview with Mr. Calhoun, 
" in the hall of the National Senate, when he was on his 
" way to Baltimore, where the National Convention of 
" the Democratic party were about assembling. Of 
" what occurred at this interview, I received authentic 
" and satisfactory information at the time. Mr. Cal- 
" houn and Mr. Yancey, as well as many other pro- 
•* slavery men in the South, were not content with the 



272 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" protection understood to be given by the Federal 
" Constitution to slavery in the States where it the-n 
" existed, but desired to obtain for this institution addi- 
'^ tional organic guarantees. This they hoped to secure 
'' through the instrumentality of the Democratic party, 
'' and, with a view to this end, resolved to get, if they 
" could, a new plank in the accustomed political plat- 
" form of that party, committing its members to the 
" adoption of a distinct intervention policy, and allow- 
" ing slavery to be introduced into all the vacant terri- 
" tory of the Union. Mr. Yancey is well known to 
" have proceeded to Baltimore on the occasion referred 
*' to, and to have made an effort to have such a resolu- 
" tion as has been described ado[)ted by that body. 
" Failing in this, he withdrew from the convention in 
'' disgust, returned to his own home in Alabama, and, 
" for some years thereafter, confined himself exclu- 
" sively to the practice of his profession, in which he 
" had already become not a little distinguished. His 
" devotion to the study of law books was such as is not 
" often seen. Meanwhile, he read scientific and literary 
" works of acknowledged merit, and labored with a 
^' most unremitting zeal to perfect himself in the art of 
" oratory. In a few yeara his fame as a jurist and 
" as a forensic advocate was widely diffused, and he at- 
" tained such a degree of intellectual culture as plficed 
" him far beyond the reach of all local rivalry." 

When the National Democratic Convention met, Yan- 
cey offered the Alabama resolutions, and they were re- 
jected by a vote of 216 nays to only 3G ayes; so 
fixed at that day was the opinion of the Democratic 
party that Congress had the power, of itself or by its 
agent, to exclude slavery fi'om the territories. The 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 273 

question with them was not one of power, but of justice. 
That the Democracy of Alabama were not wedded to 
the new doctrine, although they had declared in con- 
vention that under no stress of political necessity would 
they support a man who did not hold it, appears from 
the fact that they ratified the nomination of Cass, and 
when Yancey declared that under the resolutions he 
could not support the nominee of the party, he was vir- 
tually ostracised. Although banished, but a few years 
elapsed before the party sought him in retirement and 
accepted his leadership. 

While it is dithcult to understand with what consist- 
ency Yancey, who, by voting to apply the Missouri 
'ohibition line to a part of Texas, had recognized the 
. .■ 'or of Congress to refuse admittance to a State ap- 
pl}' 'xig with a constitution admitting slavery, could now 
lay down the counter-theory as the test of loyalty to 
the Constitution, it is not difficult to understand the 
reasons why the new position was taken. Calhoun, in 
a letter to a member of tlie Alabama Legislature at this 
time, said that " instead of shunning we ought to court 
" the issue with the North on the slavery question"; 
that he would go one step farther and " force the issue 
"^ on the North." " We are now stronger, relatively," 
said Mr. Calhoun, '' than we shall be hereafter politi- 
" cally and morally." From this day the action of the 
States-Rights party in Alabama and elsewhere became 
aggressive. The policy was no longer to find compro- 
mises by which grave and ever recurring questions 
could be evaded. It was now to hold the Free Soil ele- 
ment — the commercial States of New England — to the 
full measure of the Constitution. Whenever they forced 
an issue, the South was to meet it and force another, 



274 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

The Free Soilers had constantly refused to abide by the 
Missouri Compromise. They would take nothing less 
than the abolition of slavery in all the territories by 
act of Congress. They would permit no master to 
take his slave servant in temporary travel through the 
North. They would permit no fugitive slave to be ar- 
rested. They would abolish the slave trade in the Dis- 
trict. They would abolish slavery itself in the District. 
They would forbid the sale of slaves from one State to 
another. They would forbid slavery in all places be- 
longing to the Government, even within the limits of 
slave States. At last they were beginning to contend 
that slavery was aboHshed in all the States by the Dec- 
laration of Independence. 

In Alabama the contest of 1848, the period at which 
the aggressions of the Northern extremists were met by 
counter-aggressions from Southern extremists, was most 
violent. The States-Rights Whigs, who had joined the 
Democrats four years before, now returned to their 
ranks, and the Democracy threatened a rupture be- 
tween the friends of Yancey and that wing of the party 
which was led by Benjamin Fitzpatrick. The Fitzpat- 
RiCK Democrats held with General i -ass, and afterwards 
with Mr. Douglas, that the honor and the interests of 
the South would be subserved by permitting the people 
of a territory to decide for themselves whether they 
would have slavery or not. They opposed breaking up 
the Union in the event Congress should refuse to enact 
a Territorial Code of laws recognizing and protecting 
slavery. The Yancey Democrats denounced the Cass 
doctrine as "squatter sovereignty"; refused to accede 
to it, and threatened secession unless Congress protected 
slavery from the unfriendly legislation of the squatters. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERA'CY. 275 

They were ready and anxious to force the issue upon 
the North. The agitations and quarrels of half a cen- 
tury between the commercial and agricultural sections 
of the country had produced their fruit. The States- 
Rights men believed that now was the time for action, 
to organize their clubs, to inflame the people, and to 
precipitate at least the cotton States into revolution. 

The Free Sellers of the North felt the fever of ex- 
citement which was being engendered at the South, 
fanned the flame, and held out to their excited brethren 
a wish that the Union might be dissolved. Senator 
Hale, of New Hampshire, presented a petition to the 
United States Senate to dissolve the Union. Senators 
Seward, Chase and Hale voted to receive it. The ap- 
parent willingness with which the agitators of the North 
looked upon the idea of dissolution, and the often re- 
peated threats and clamors for disunion, deceived the 
mass of Southern people into the delusion that seces- 
sion might be peaceably accomphshed. Thus both 
sections were learning to question coolly the value of 
the Union, and to look upon its dissolution as an escape 
from a disagreeable partnership. The idea of fighting 
to preserve such a partnership was gradually being ban- 
ished farther and farther fi-om the public mind. 

While Faneuil Hall, associated with so many de- 
lightful memories of the struggle for independence, was 
being thrown open to the meetings of the Boston Abo- 
Htionists, who had inscribed upon their banners — " The 
" Constitution, a covenant with dqath, an agreement 
with hell," and while its doors were being closed against 
Daniel Webster, the States-Rights men of the South 
were busily at work. Calhoun had announced that 
now was the time for action. To wait longer would be 



276 th4j cradle of the confederacy. 

to weaken the Southern cause. The issue must be 
forced upon the North. To wait until the North forced 
it upon the South by the purse and sword of a sectional 
administration would be suicidal. The course of Presi- 
dent Taylor favored his schemes. The President had 
thrown himself into the arms of Mr. Seward. He 
disapproved the plan of adjustment proposed by Mr. 
Clay, and pronounced in favor of the immediate admis- 
sion of California and in favor of the Wii mot Pkoviso. 
The Southern Whigs met in council and delegated Mr. 
C. M. Conrad of Louisiana, Mr. Humphrey Marshall 
of Kentucky, and Mr. Robert Toombs of Georgia, to 
wait upon him and inform him that his Southern friends 
would be driven into opposition if he persisted in hit> 
course. His reply indicated that he would adhere to 
the Free Soil Whigs rather than to the Southern Whigs. 
The breaking up of the Whig party at that day would 
have thrown almost the entire population of the South 
into the ranks of the States Rights men, and would 
have prcipitated in 1850 the revolution which the 
death of General Taylor postponed until 1860. 

The violation on the part of the North of the rule 
agreed upon in the Missouri Compromise ; by pressing 
the WiLMOT Proviso upon the South; by excluding 
Southern property from entrance into that territory 
which had been acquired by Southern blood and valor ; 
by denying to the South an equal participation under 
the Constitution of the benefit of the common terri- 
tories, plunged the people of the South into profound 
agitation. States-Rights men of all parties, Whigs, 
as well as Democrats, claimed that the Constitution 
which permitted and tolerated slavery in the States 
must likewise permit, tolerate and protect it in the ter- 



THE CRAJOLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 277 

ritories so long as they belonged to all the States alike. 
It was difficult to deny this reasoning. To those who 
had inherited slaves and had grown familiar with the 
institution of slavery, it appeared as clear as the noon- 
day sun. Men like Benton, who leaned to the Free 
Soilers, contended that under the Mexican law, forbid- 
ding vslavery, California and New Mexico came to the 
Union with free territory, and must remain free unless 
some power inaugurated slavery there. This he 
claimed could not be done by Congress, as the Consti- 
tution could not establish slavery, however much it 
might protect it where it already existed. Men like 
Webster contended that the Constitution was made for 
the States and not for the territories ; that the terri- 
tories were governed by rules and regulations made by 
Congress, and not by the articles of the Constitution ; 
and that among those rules Congress might provide 
one, although Mr. Webster denied the policy of such 
action, against the introduction or continuance of 
slavery. To the first argument, Mr. Calhoun replied 
that as soon as the treaty between Mexico and the 
United States was ratified, the sovereignty and au- 
thority of Mexico became Satinet, and the Consti- 
tution took the place of Mexican law. To the second 
he replied that the rules and regulations adopted by 
Congress for the government of the territories must be 
constitutional and could not be arbitrary, and that in 
iiaming them the right of the people of the South to 
enjoy their property in the common territory must be 
observed. 

Resistance to the several measures before Congress 
became the cry of the States-Rights party. In Mis- 
sissippi, a county meeting proposed a convention at 



278 THE CRADLE OP TlIE CONFEDERACY. 

NASH^^LLE of all the Southern Stiites, to take steps for 
a redress of grievances. In South Carolina, in Georgia 
and in Alabama, mass meetings were held in almost 
every county, denouncing the bills, and counseling re- 
sistance in the event they should become law. These 
meetings were participated in by States Rights Whigs 
as well as Democrats, although the great bulk of the 
protestants were from the Democratic ranks. The 
Whigs for the most part were content to remain quiet 
and await the issue. The members of the General 
Assembly of Alabama, at an informal meeting, nomi- 
nated delegates to the proposed Nashville convention. 
They were selected from both of the political parties. 
Among those who attended, were Benjamin Fitzpatrick, 
Wm. Cooper, John A. Campbell, Thos. J. Judge, John 
A. Winston, L. P. Walker, Wm. M. Murphy, Nigh 
Davis, Reuben C. Shorter, Thos. A. Walker, Reuben 
Chapman, James Abercrombie, Wm. M. Byrd — men of 
the highest position in the State, of enlarged views, and 
of the strictest integrity. Many of those who attended 
the convention did so with a view to prevent extreme 
action. 

The convention met June 3, 1850. The compro- 
mise measures proposed by Mr. Clay were then pend- 
ing, but the impression prevailed that they would be 
rejected. Wm. L. Sharkey, Whig, was made President 
of the convention. In his introductory speech he took 
occasion to say that they met, not to dissolve tiie Union, 
but to preserve it. The views of Mr. Sharkey, how- 
ever, were not the views of the convention. While 
the majority of the Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee 
delegations opposed the whole design of the meeting, 
the delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Texas 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 279 

and other States favored a clear declaration of resist- 
ance. John A. Campbell, of Alabama, afterwards a 
Justice of the 8upieme Court of the United States, 
prepared and read the resolutions, ^fhey were cautious 
and prudent, condemning the Wilmot Proviso and the 
other proposed hostile legislation, but concluding not to 
advise a method of resistance, in the confident expecta- 
tion that Congress would not adjourn without a final 
settlement of the questions in dispute. These resolu- 
tions were a substantial defeat of the South Carolina 
progi'amme ; but to show the sentiment of the conven- 
tion an address was prepared to accompany the resolu- 
tions. This address not only denounced the several 
independent propositions before Congress, but also de- 
nounced the pending compromise of . -^r. Clay. Thomas 
J. Judge, of Alabama, moved to strike out that part of 
the address condemnatory of the compromise. The Ala- 
bama delegation sustained Mr. Judge, as did portions 
of other delegations, but the motion failed. Mr. Aber- 
CROMBiE, of Alabama, moved that the vote of each indi- 
vidual be recorded ; and thus it was seen that the Whigs 
of the convention generally voted to accept the com- 
promise, and the Democrats generally voted against its 
acceptance. Mr. Sharkey declined to vote upon the 
proposition to strike out. He spoke in favor of it, but 
was induced, because of his position as President, to re- 
frain from recording his vote. The convention ad- 
journed to be called together by President Sharkey 
after the action of Congress on the compromise meas- 
ures. He declined to call them together again, and 
thus the movement for concerted resistance fell still-born. 
Upon the return of the Alabama delegates from 
Nashville, a meeting was held at Montgomery to ratify 



280 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

the action of the convention. Mr. Yancey addressed 
the meeting with his usual abihty and earnestness. He 
said that it was his belief that the North would not do 
the South justice, that it was " time to set our house 
" in order," and to sustain Texas if need be with the 
bayonet. This appeal of Mr. Yancey tended to arouse 
the spirit of especially the young men. It operated 
powerfully upon those who had volunteered in defence 
of the rights of Texas and had Ibught the battles of 
Mexico. When Texas won her independence the Rio 
Grande from its mouth to the source was yielded up by 
Mexico as her western boundary. But now the Free 
Sellers were intent upon carving out a territory, to be 
called New Mexico, from the soil of Texas, with the 
sole object of making it a free State. This was so 
llagrant a violation of the rights of Texas that the 
eloquence of Yancey, in denunciation of the scheme, 
aroused a spirit of injury and resentment in the breast 
of thousands of those who still hoped for a satisfactory 
adjustment of the dispute. 

From the meeting of the Nashville Convention in 
June to the passage by the Senate of Mr. Clay's com- 
promise measures in August, political excitement was 
intense. The Abolitionisms denounced the proposetl 
iiigitive slave law as violative of morality. The Free 
Sellers rejected by repeated votes in Congress every 
proposition to apply the Missouri Compromise line to 
the new territory. The obstinacy of the anti-slavery 
men was met by an equal obstinacy at the South. The ' 
Democratic press were almost unanimous in repudiation 
of Mr. Clay's measures. The Southern Rights associa- 
tions denounced the compromise. The Montgomery 
Advertiser and Gazetle, one of the leading journals of 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 281 

Alabama, made incessant assaults upon the several 
measures of compromise and called for their rejection, 
although it was very evident that their rejection would 
be followed instantly by the secession of South Caro- 
lina. In South Carolina, and among the States-Rights 
men, especially in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, it 
was hoped that the plan of adjustment would fail, the 
secessionists being confident that now was the hour to 
strike. 

On the other hand the dominant, but for awhile sup- 
pressed, sentiment of the people was in favor of the 
l^lan. The undercurrent of patriotism hoped that the 
compromise might succeed. In the language of Clai- 
borne, writing before the late war a memoir of Qurr- 
MAN : " But as the boldest tremble on the verge of eter- 
nity, and shrink from the dark abyss beyond which 
all is uncertain, so they were willing to postpone for 
posterity this dread solution. Not one of them but 
would have shed his blood freely for his country, and 
now they clung to this compromise as the mariner 
clings to the last plank in the surging seas. Let 
those who teel themselves infallible sit in inexorable 
judgment on the motives ol their fellows, and con- 
demn Clay, Benton, Webster and Calhoun, the lead- 
ing advocates of the plan of reconciliation. Such 
judgment is not for me. Had these four men pro- 
nounced the words ' No Compromise,' war would most 
probably have ensued — I'ratricidal war ! And' who 
knows but that the God ot" vengeance and of right- 
eousness would have stamped upon us the brand of 
Cain, and sent us to wander over the earth vagabonds 
among the nations?" 
Upon the passage of the compromise measures Gov- 



282 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

ernor Seabrook, of South Carolina, wrote to Governor 
Quitman, of Mississippi, to know whether he would call 
the Legislature together to consider grievances. Quit- 
man rephed that he had issued his proclamation con- 
vening that body November 1 8th. Seabrook expressed 
his gratification, and said that it was policy for South 
Carolina not to take the initiative, but that " she is 
" ready and anxious for immediate separation from the 
" Union." The General Assembly of South Carolina 
voted resolutions suggesting a Southern Congress, to 
meet at Montgomery, June 2d, 1852. They voted 
also the sum of |350,000 to arm the State. The feel- 
ing in Texas was apparently as deep as that in Missis- 
sippi. That State earnestly protested against that 
portion of the compromise which cut away her territory 
north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes and added it 
to New Mexico. She denied the right of Congress to 
dismember a State for any purpose, and she denied the 
policy of doing so simply to appease the Free Soil pro- 
fessed regard for the sanctity of the Missouri Compro- 
mise line. Governor Bell ■ convoked the Texas Legis- 
lature and called for one thousand volunteers to defend 
the unity of Texas. General Quitman, writing to Gen- 
eral PiNCKNEY Henderson, said that he was wilhng to 
draw his sword for Texas, and that so soon as a collision 
of arms appeared inevitable he would convene the Mis- 
sissippi Legislature. Soon after, he issued his procla- 
mation, basing the call upon outrages imposed upon the 
South by the compromise legislation. Upon the meet- 
ing of the Legislature he advised a call for a State Con- 
vention to act in concert with other States, or separately, 
in changing the relations of the Htate with the Federal 
Government. The Legislature decided to call a con- 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 283 

vention for September, 1851. For the period of one 
year, therefore, the people of Mississippi were greatly 
agitated upon the question of acceptance or rejection 
of the compromise. The Whigs, led by Sharkey, aided 
by a strong detachment of Democrats, formed a Union 
party, aroused the people, returned a majority of the 
State Convention, and elected Senator Henry S. Foote 
Governor over Col. Jefferson Davis. Governor Qujt- 
MAN had been the original candidate against Mr. Foote, 
but had retired from the canvass when the people pro- 
nounced against secession in the election of members of 
the convention. Mr. Davis was nominated towards 
the close of the canvass. The issue of secession, being 
presented clearly and distinctly to the people of Mis- 
sissippi, it was clearly and distinctly repudiated. 

In Georgia the public excitement was quite as intense 
as in Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. There a 
State convention was also called to consider the meas- 
ure and remedy for grievances. In the election of 
members a large majority of Union men were returned. 
The resolutions of that convention, known as the 
" Georgia Platform of 1850," were reported by Charles 
J. Jenkins, a Whig, and an eminent lawyer. Alexan- 
der H. Stephens was one of the committee who reported 
them. It was resolved, that as our fathers yielded to 
compromise to frame the Constitution, they should yield 
somewhat for its continuance ; that while not approving 
all the measures of adjustment, they accepted and 
abided by them : and that (leorgia should resist to the 
utmost any effort to interfere with the rights of the 
people of the South under the compromise. Nothing 
was said as to the right of secession ; Mr. Stephens and 
other Whigs upon the committee believing in that right. 



284 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

In the election for Governor, Howell Cobb, the candi- 
date of the Union party, was elected by an overwhelm- 
ing majority. 

Even in South Carolina the Union party, uniting 
their forces with the Co-operation party, exhibited such 
unexpected strength, that it was cleai' that an attempt 
at separate secession would meet resistance within her 
own borders ; that the call of a Federal marshal to sus- 
tain a mandate of a Federal Court, would have rallied 
to his support a vast number of determined citizens, and 
precipitated civil war in every district. 

General Quitman, to whom an appeal had been made 
to take the leadership in the secession movement, saw 
l,hat even the Gulf States would refuse to act in concert. 
Writing to Colonel John S. Preston oi' South Carolina, 
he said that the only way to arouse the South was for 
one State to secede, that the South would be -startled, 
and the people be compelled to take sides upon a plain 
issue of coercion. Said, he: "Should the Federal 
" Goveriunent attempt to employ force, an active and 
'' cordial union of the whole South would be instantly 
" effected, and a complete Southern Confederacy organ- 
" ized." Believing this to be true the convention of 
Southern Rights Associations met at Charleston and 
arrived at the conclusion with but few dissenting voices, 
that although co-operation was in every respect desir- 
able, still, resistance alone by South Carolina was to be 
preferred to obedience to the compromise laws. Men 
like BuTLEK, Barnwell, and Orr, opposed separate 
action, while men like pEniGRu, opposing secession in 
either way, threw their numbers on the side of co-op- 
eration. The people of South Carolina met in conven- 
tion, May, 1851. The two-thirds majority necessary 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 285 

to pass the ordinance for separate secession was want- 
ing ; the minority report recommending co-operation 
was ably advocated by Mr. Orr, and finally com- 
manded the support of more than one-third of the 
convention. 

In Alabama the contest waged as warmly as in the 
other States, and it was now that the Union principles, 
taught the people by the Whigs and Jackson Demo- 
crats in the campaign of 1840, became their guide. 
Brave, impetuous, spirited and defiant^ it was dillicult 
lor her citizens to regard the aggressions of New Eng- 
land with patience. They ,saw their friends reviled as 
inhuman; their own lathers, as slave holders, read from 
the church by the anti-slavery party of the North ; 
they saw the post oliices teeming with incendiary pub- 
lications ; the United States flag displaced by the State 
Hag on the Massachusetts State House ; and the Con- 
stitution nullified by the passage of what was called 
personal liberty bills. Not only nullification, but they 
heard disunion openly proclaimed by the " Emancipa- 
'"' tor," and other kindred newspapers ; they saw the 
leading Free Soil journal publishing an ode addressed to 
the Hag of the United States — " Tear down that flaunt- 
" ing lie." They saw the Abolitionist, Garrison, ad- 
mitted to P^aneuil Hall, and its doors closed against 
Daniel Webster, because of his opposition to the Wil- 
mot Proviso. In spite of all these outrages, spurning 
the (lag, trampling on the Constitution, nuUitying laws, 
and rending the very churches in twain, the Union men 
of Alabama did not despond nor despair. They saw 
that the outcry against " the slave power " was simply 
an electioneering scheme of politicians at the North, 
that the South had not the slaves with which to popu- 



286 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

late territories as fast as the North could populate them 
with European immigrants, and with their own drifting 
anti-slavery people ; that the preservation of the 
balance of power in the Lower House of Con2;ress was 
{in impossibility, and that its preservation in the Senate 
was doomed by the inability of the South to keep pace 
with the North in point of numbers ; that the preser- 
vation of the rights of the South was only possible by 
a union of right thinking men North and South; and 
that slavery could be protected only under the flag of 
the Union. Above all, they saw the greatness and 
glory of our infant Republic ; the freedom of thought, 
«peech and action permitted in this, the last and only 
refuge of freemen ; the light burden of Government ; 
and the opportunities for fortune, peace, contentment 
and happiness. " Honor and praise," said Rufus 
Choate " to the eminent men of all parties who rose 
" that day to the measure of a true greatness ; who 
" remembered that they had a country to preserve as 
" well as a local constituency to gratify; who laid all 
" the wealth and all the hopes of illustrious lives on the 
" altar of a hazardous patriotism ; who reckoned all the 
" sweets of a present popularity for nothing in compar- 
" ison with that more exceeding weight of glory which 
" follows him who seeks to compose an agitated and 
" to save a sinking land." 

For the purpose of calling out the Union sentiment 
of the State, a mass meeting was held at Montgomery 
soon after the passage of the compromise measures. It 
was presided over by judge ^enajah S. Bibb, brother 
of the first two Governors of Alabama, and cousin of 
one of the colleagues of Henry Clay, in the United 
States Senate. Among the orators of the occasion 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 287 

was James ABERCROMriE, who had served many years 
in both houses of the Alabama Legislature, was after- 
wards a member of Congress from the Montgomery 
district, and who had headed the Clay electoral ticket 
in : 844 ; 1'homas J. Judge, a promising lawyer of 
Lowndes county, who had also served with distinction 
in the Legislature, and who had striven, but unsuccess- 
fully, to strike from the Nashville address the denunci- 
ation of the compromise ; Henry W. Hilliard, an elo- 
quent and cultivated orator, who had long adorned the 
Whig cause, had served in Congress and represented 
the country abroad ; and Thomas H. Watts, a young 
lawyer of growing reputation, of large practice, un- 
bounded personal popularity, and who was destined 
subsequently to become a Governor of his State, and 
the Attorney General of the Southern Confederacy. 

The resolutions of the meeting in which thpse men 
participated expressed a warm and confident attachment 
to the Union and denounced as unnecessary and dan- 
gerous the systematic and formidable organization, in 
progress in South Carolina, aided and abetted in certain 
portions of other States, especially Georgia and Missis- 
sippi, having for its object violent resistance to the 
compromise acts. A letter was read li'om Senator 
William R. King, in which he said that he could see 
no justifiable ground for resorting to these revolution- 
ary measures, which he regretted to find were openly 
advocated by some of our worthiest citizens ; with such 
men he had no sympathy ; he was no disunionist. 
Letters of a similar character were read fi'om other dis- 
tinguished Alabamians. Charles J. Jenkins, of Geor- 
gia, wrote that at present he could see " no cause for 
" the revolutionary right of secession." Evidently a 



288 THiE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERAC^. 

formidable fraction of the Democratic party were favor- 
able to acceptance ot the compromise. 

Cotemporaueously with this meeting, States-Rights 
associations sprung up all over the State of Alabama. 
They breathed hostility to the compromise and threat- 
ened resistance ; without, however, naming the method 
of resistance. They stigmatised the Union men as 
submissionists. The JMontgomery Stjites- Rights Asso- 
ciation took issue with the Union meeting and sent a 
written challenge to the Unionists to meet them in pub- 
lic debate. The Advertiser and Gazette daily assailed 
the compromise, applauded the followers of Yancey, 
and denounced the Union men by name. Yet all this 
time, the editor of that journal, Col. J. J. Seibels, a gen- 
tleman who had commanded a regiment in the Mexican 
war and stood hii;h as a citizen and a lawyer, submitted 
to the people no plan ol resistance. He was a member 
of the States-Rights Association. If his remedy was 
not by going out of the Union, it must have been by 
repealing the compromise legislation Yet that legisla- 
tion could not be repealed, for California was already 
admitted; and the compromise gave the South and 
North equal rights in all the territory acquired from 
Mexico. It also gave the South protection for her fli- 
gitives. It is, therefore, fiir to infer that Colonel Sei- 
BELs was in favor of secession by the most direct means. 
While Yancey and Seibels were actuated by identical 
principles, the clubs with which they acted were divided 
as to the proper redress for grievances— whether seces- 
sion should be accomplished by separate . State action, 
or by co-operative action after deliberation in a South- 
ern Congress. At this point it must be borne in mind 
that while men like Seibels, of Alabama, and Barnwell, 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 289 

of South Carolina, favored co-operation of the slave 
States as the best and most certain step to secession, 
others favored co-operation because, unwilling to be 
ranked as submissionists, but yet firmly opposed to dis- 
union in any shape, they looked upon co-operation as a 
bungling and cumbersome machine which must invaria- 
bly prevent secession, as it had recently done at Nash- 
ville. One branch of the co-operationists were seces- 
sionists ; another, and by far the larger, branch were 
Union men. It was the timidity of this last branch, 
who advocated co-operative resistance while seeking to 
prevent resistance, that ten years later placed them in 
a false position and gave the control of the State into 
the hands of the separate secessionists. 

To settle the question as to the mode of redress, the 
Pleasant Hill, Dallas county. Club resolved that where- 
as there was a difference of opinion about the mode of 
resistance, a State Convention should meet and decide 
the matter. The Advertiser and Gazette joined in this 
call, declaring that the great object and the inevitable 
end of the Union movement " is and will be the aboli- 
" tion of slavery throughout the United States, and the 
" people had as well prepare to resist, or make up their 
" minds to submit to it wow." The State Convention 
of States-Rights clubs met at Montgomery, February 
10, 1851. Thomas Williams, of Montgomery, a na- 
tive of South Carolina, was made President. Adam C. 
Felder, also a native of South Carolina, was made Sec- 
retary. Among the prominent gentlemen who partici- 
pated in the meeting were W. L. Yancey, Samuel J. 
Rice, Joel E. Matthews, John A. Elmore, David 
Clopton, George Goldthwaite, J. J. Seibei£, Abram 
Martin, A. P. Bagby and B. F. Saffold. 



290 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

The Convention, after rehearsing the grievances of 
the South and the unsatisfactory character of the com- 
promise legislation, resolved " that a tame submission 
" to or a patient acquiescence in this hostile and uncon- 
" stitutional legislation would not in our [thek] opinion 
^' be conducive to the peace, happiness, prosperity and 
honor of the Southern States." They resolved, further, 
that all old parties should be suspended, that a new 
Southern party should be formed, that the Governor 
should call the Legislature together for the passage of 
an act enabhng the people to elect delegates to a South- 
ern Congress ; that if the Governor should fail to do 
so, the people are advised to open polls and hold an 
election for such purpose, and that should such South- 
ern Congress, when assembled, decide that the Southern 
Stai. s should secede from the Union, and if one or more 
States, in accordance with that decision, should actually 
secede, it would be the duty and the interest of Ala- 
bama als'> to secede, and to aid in the formation of a 
Southern Confederacy. 

This action of the Convention did not satisfy the 
separate secession wing of the party, nor did it satisfy 
the opposing party. The separate action men looked 
upon the election of a Southern Congress by all the 
Southern States as a virtual abandonment of resistance, 
for it was evident that a majority of such a Congress 
would never decide for secession. Virginia, Tennes- 
see, Kentucky and Missouri would be a unit against it, 
and the other States would be more or less divided. 
To the Union men it appeared that the Convention were 
resolving that " I dare not " should wait upon "1 would.'" 
Thereupon the Union leaders used every exertion to 
force the States-Rights associations to a more definite 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 291 

declaration of their intentions. To all these efforts Col. 
Seibels, in his jouriial, replied : " If Mr. Watts and his 
" Federal ConsoHdation Fillmore friends could get us to 
" make this issue before the people, he is confident of 
" success — for he is satisfied that the Secessionists are 
" in a great minority in the State. * * * * 
" Now, so far as we are concerned, we shall not present 
" the issue of secession, whatever our individual opinion 
" on the subject may be, but we shall unite and go with 
" the States-Rights men of the State who are opposed to 
" your absolute, unconditional-submission doctrines with 
" the old obnoxious doctrine of Federal Whiggery 
" combined." 

Mr. Yancey was not satisfied with this half-aggres- 
sive, half-defensive movement. He was not one of 
those who rode like the Mexican lancers at Contreras, 
starting at a charge with ribbons and pennants dancing 
to the wind, and as they near the point of concussion 
subsiding to a gallop, then to a trot, then to a walk, and 
finally to a halt. His policy was to charge with accel- 
erated velocity, with lance in rest and helmet down, 
striking for the centre of the enemy's line. The move- 
ment which Mr. Yancey favored was that of the leading 
statesmen of South Carolina — separate State action. 
It is true that in December, 1850, the South Carolina 
Legislature resolved to suggest and to send delegates to 
a Southern Congress to be held at Montgomery^ and to 
call a State Convention for consideration of the action 
of the proposed Congi-ess, but it is also true that the 
people were in advance of their representatives. The 
idea of a co-operative movement was seen to be futile. 
The Nashville Convention had met with delegates regu- 
larly appointed from only two States, South Carolina 



292 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

and Mississippi ; and the latter of these had provided 
that the action of the Congress should be submitted to 
a vote of the people. It had proven a fiasco^ which 
had retarded rather than advanced the secession move- 
/ ment. During the winter session of 1850 of the South 
v/ Carolina Legislature the separate-action party grew in 
strength daily, until in the following May Governor 
Means wrote to General Quitman that " there is now 
*' not the slightest doubt but that the next Legislature 
" will call the Convention (State) together at a period 
" during the ensuing year and when that convention 
" meets the State will secede." Governor Means also 
said : " We are anxious for co-operation, and also anx- 
" ious that some other State should take the lead ; but 
"from recent developments we are satisfied that South 
" Carolina is the only State in which sufficient unanim- 
" ity exists to commence the movement." 

The Resistance party in Mississippi were as hesitating 
as that in Alabama. Col. Maxey Gregg, writing to 
General Quitman urged him to hoist the banner of se- 
cession. He said : " I beheve that if the resistance 
" party in Mississippi will now abandon all temporizing 
" and come out boldly for secession, they will greatly in- 
" crease the chance of success in the struggles with the 
" submissionists. But if they flinch from the issue of 
" disunion, they will suffer at once fi'om all the odium 
" of the measures of South CaroHna and all the weak- 
" ness of a false position. Let them contend manfully 
" for secession, and, even if beaten in the elections, they 
" will form a minority so powerful in moral influence, 
'' that when South Carolina secedes, the first drop of 
" blood that is shed will cause an irresistible popular 
" impulse in their favor, and the submissionists will be 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 293 

"crushed." This was the plan finally adopted by 
South Carolina leaders. This was the plan urged by 
Quitman in Mississippi, and by Yancey in Alabama. 
Neither of these men were strategists, nor^ temporizers. 
They put no value on victory apart from principles ; 
they preferred defeat to equivocation ; and hence it was 
that General Quitman after calling the State Convention 
in Mississippi, and seeing a majority of Union men re- 
turned to it, retired in disgust from the canvass ; and 
hence it was that Mr. Yancey not satisfied with the 
half-way movement of the States-Rights Convention at 
Montgomery made an issue with that body and hoisted 
the banner of separate secession. From that moment 
his labor was to gain over to his views the different 
clubs, then to press his views upon the States-Rights 
party in county meetings, and finally to imprint them 
upon the Democratic party banner. 

Mr. Watts, although a believer in the right of the 
State to secede from the Union, and an ardent States- 
Rights man, was opposed, as has been said, to the policy 
of secession, and was a most efficient leader of the Union 
element. He vainly endeavored to draw from the 
States-Rights associations an admission that they 
favored secession. But while the admission was want- 
ing, the people thoroughly understood that an unquali- 
fied admission was not necessary to prove their design. 
However much the one or the other party might evade 
or shirk the issue, the contest in Alabama in 1851 was 
undoubtedly between Union and Secession. 

In a controversy such as this, which so fearfully 
agitated the South, it was not possible to conceal or 
keep out of view the main question, whether a State has 
a right to secede from the Union peaceably. That 



2^4 'rHE ORADLE 01? TW& CONFEDERACY. 

question necessarily played a conspicuous part in the 
discussions. The friends of the compromise in the Ala- 
bama Legislature called a State Union Convention. It 
met January* 19th, 1851, at Montgomery. James 
E. BiLSER, a prominent lawyer of Montgomery and re- 
cently a member of Congress, was made President. 
Among the delegates were Thomas B. Cooper, R. M. 
Patton, W. M. Byrd, B. 8. Bibb, J. M. Tarleton, W. 
B. Moss, James H. Clanton, Lewis E. Parsons, Robert 
J. Jemison, H. W. Hilliard, R. W. Walker, ihomas 
H. Watts, ^ich. Davis, Jr., B. M. Woolsey, C. M. 
Wilcox, and W. A. Ashley. This Convention accepted 
the compromise legislation. They went further and de- 
nied the right of secession. They resolved that when 
governments become too grievous to be borne it is the 
right and duty of a people to " boldly dely its authority 
'• by asserting in the spirit of the Revolution their 
" purpose to be free and independent." The remedy 
here set forth against tyranny, was clearly intended to 
present an issue with the Secessionists. That remedy 
was in their opinion not a reserved right of secession 
but such a right as our fathers exercised when they 
threw off' the yoke of Great Britain. The spirit of the 
Revolution was the sphit of rebelhon — an appeal to 
arms and not to law. To leave no ddubt that the con- 
vention recognized no other mode of redress for griev- 
ances except that set forth in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, they resolved further : " That the asserted 
" right of secession of a State from the Union is un- 
" authorized by the Federal Constitution." Had they 
stopped here their declaration would have been point- 
less, for no one contended that the Federal Constitution 
either asserted or denied the right of secession ^ the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 295 

Secessionists holding that the right was reserved to the 
States among the residuary powers not granted to the 
Federal Constitution. But the resolution continued as 
follows : " But we claim it as a paramount right which 
" belongs to every free people to overthrow their gov- 
" ernment when it fails to answer the ends for which it 
" was established." There can be no dispute as to the 
meaning of this clause of the resolution. It means sim- 
ply such revolution as our fathers waged against 
Great Britain — nothing more nor less. Had the Con- 
vention said that they claim it as a paramount right 
which belongs to every State of the Union to overthrow 
the government, then' meaning might possibly have ad- 
mitted of doubt, although the act of secession as recog- 
nized by the States-Rights men could not properly be 
spoken of as an overthrow of the government, being 
simply a retiring from a government which would still 
have actual force and effect among the States which 
remained confederated. But the claim of the Conven- 
tion was that redress of tyranny could be effected 
only by means of thiit paramount right which belongs 
to every free people. The paramount right which be- 
longs to every free people is simply the right of rebel- 
lion — the right to be styled patriot if successful like 
Washington — the right to be called traitor if unsuc- 
cessful like William Wallace or Kossuth, Kosciusko 
or Lopez. 

There were doubtless individuals in the Union Con- 
vention like Mr. Watts and others, educated in the law 
school of the University of Virginia, who recognized the 
right of secession as claimed by Hayne and Calhoun. 
To such persons it must have appeared that an abstract 
right on the part of seceding States, which the non- 



296 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

seceding States denied, was in substance nothing but the 
natural right of revolution which every people possessed, 
and over which it was needless to waste words or raise 
an issue. 

While these States-Rights Whigs remained silent 
over the anti-secession resolution, the vast body of the 
Union party, Whigs and Democrats, undoubtedly en- 
dorsed the resolution in its plain meaning most heartily. 
In evidence of this fact it is well to notice the cotem- 
poraneous expressions of leading members and represen- 
tatives of the party. 

The Whig newspaper at Montgomery, the Journal, 
hoisted at the head of its columns the name of Benja- 
min Glover Shields as the Union candidate for Gov- 
ernor. Mr. Shields was a native of Abbeville, South 
Carolina ; had been a member of the Alabama General 
Assembly several years, was a member of Congress in 
1841, and Minister to Venezuela under Mr. Polk. 
He was an active member of the Democratic party. So 
devoted and unquaHfied was his attachment to the 
Union that in a published card in reply to those who 
had nominated him for Governor, he said : " I am for 
" this Federal Union of ours under all circumstances 
" and at all hazards ; right or wrong, I am for the 
" Union." 

Not so unquaHfiedly, but with equal distinctness, the 
several Union candidates for Congress uttered their re- 
pudiation of secession. C. C Langdon, of the First 
District, denied the right of secession. James Aber- 
ckombie, of the Second District, denounced the proposed 
action of South CaroUna, and spoke of walling her in 
with Federal authority in the event of secession, and of 
starving her to death on rice. Judge Mudd, of the 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 29t 

Third District, acknowledged the right of a State to 
secede, but at the same time admitted the right of the 
Federal Government to enforce its laws within her limits. 
W. R. Smith, of the Fourth District, spoke at Tuska- 
loosa, and was thus reported by the Monitor : " He 
" denied the right of peaceable secession as it is called, 
" in all its phases, and sustained his position most tri- 
" umphantly." The Monitor added : " This thing 
" they call the right of peaceable secession is in our 
" view too preposterous to spend words about. We 
"acknowledge no such right." Williamson R. W. 
Cobb, in the Fifth District, denied the right of secession 
in toto. George S. Houston, in the Sixth District, 
also denied the right. In the Seventh District, Alex- 
ander White likewise denied the right of a State to 
secede. 

In the County of Lauderdale, one of the richest of 
the Tennessee Valley, a number of questions were pro- 
pounded to the candidates for the General Assembly. 
Robert M. Patton, one of the candidates for the Senate, 
and afterwards Governor of the State, replied to the 
questions in these words : 

" I do not beUeve that any State has the Constitu- 
" tional or reserved right to secede from the Union. 

" All laws passed by Congress in pursuance of the 
" Constitution are the supreme laws of the land as well 
" in a State attempting secession as in any other State. 
" So I say that I believe that the President of the 
" United States has the Constitutional right to execute 
" all the laws of Congress within the limits of any 
" seceding State. 

" My matured opinion is that the Legislature of Ala- 
" bama should refuse positively to give countenance to 



298 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

" any State attempting to resist with force the execution 
" of the laws of Congress within her hmits ; and as a 
" loyal citizen, and as a true patriot, I hold it to be my 
" duty to aid, if necessary, the supremacy of the Con- 
" stitution and laws." 

So answered the other candidates, Richard W. 
Walker, V. M. Benham, and S. C Sheffield. 

The Constitutional Union Club of Montgomery had 
frequent meetings, at which prominent citizens delivered 
addresses. At one of these meetings, Thomas J. Judqh 
spoke, denying the right of South Carolina to secede, 
and sustaining the right of the Federal Government to 
enforce its laws within her limits if she should do so. 
The Advertiser charged Mr. Judge with having advo- 
cated the right of coercion. This brought out a com- 
munication from him in which he said : " I contended 
" that if she seceded I would not be in favor of the 
" General Government * subjugating' her, or making 
" her a ' subjugated province,' that I did not beUeve 
" the General Government had such power, nor had I 
" ever heard such power claimed ; but I insisted it 
" would be the duty of the General Government to en- 
" force its Constitution and laws ; that the Constitution 
" and laws had been enforced in South Carolina ever 
" since she had been a member of the Union, and if that 
" had not made her a ' subjugated province' the con- 
" tinning to enforce the same Constitution and laws 
" would not make her so." 

So clear was the sentiment of the Union party against 
the right of secession that the Advertiser published the 
following summary of their views without denial from 
the opposing press : 

" As deducible from then- party presses, their great 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 299 

" leaders and public speakers generally in this city and 
" elsewhere, they deny the right of peaceable secession 
" by a sovereign State. In case a sovereign State does 
" secede they look upon it as rebellion and contend for 
" the right of the General Government to coerce and 
" subjugate her ; or, which is the same thing, they in- 
'^ sist that the General government should enforce its 
'"' laws within the limits of the seceding State, after she 
" had seceded ; and to this end should apply whatever 
" force may be necessary for the purpose. They de- 
" fend the late compromise against the opposition and 
'' resistance of the States-Rights men, and therefore ap- 
" prove of the admission of California, of the abolition of 
" the slave trade, and slavery too under some circum- 
" stances in#the District of Columbia, and the dismem- 
" berment of Texas." 

Apart from the unfairness of saying that acquiescence 
in the compromise was equivalent to approval of all its 
features, this summary very justly expresses the views 
and opinions of the Union party of 1850-'51 — that 
party which in the subsequent election filled the Gen- 
eral Assembly with men, who unlike those of Georgia, 
South Carolina and Mississippi, refused to call a State 
Convention, a party which forced the re-election of a 
Union Governor, returned four out of the seven Con- 
gressmen and carried the popular vote by a large majori- 
ty. So strong was Alabama fixed in the Union faith that 
not the sound of a cannon would have shaken her then 
from her moorings. 



CHAPTER XII. 



The Montgomery District — Contest of States-Rights and 
Union Men over Yancey — The Georgia Platform — 
Yancey Retires and Cochran Takes His Flace — Report 
of the /Southern Rights Association — Defeat of the 
Yancey Party — Scheme to Acquire Cuba — Lopez and 
Quitman — Federal Arrest of a Governor — Reorganiza- 
tion of Parties — The Southern Whigs — The Whig 
Convention at Baltimore — Reply of Scott and Pierce to 
the States-Rights Associations, Etc., Etc. 



"But the indissoluble link of Union between the people of the 
several States of this confederated nation is, after all, not in the right, 
but in the heart. If the day should ever come (may Heaven avert it!) 
when the aflections of the people of these States shall be alienated from 
each other, when the fraternal spirit shall give way to cold indi fference 
or collisions of interest shall fester into hatred, the bands of political as- 
sociation will not long hold together parties no longer attracted by the 
magnetism of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies ; and far bet- 
ter will it be for the people of the disunited States to part in friendship 
from each other, than to be held together by constraint." 

Address of J. Q. Adams befoke the N. Y. Hist. Soc, 1839. 



The Montgomery Congressional District, composed 
of some of the largest slave counties of the State, in- 
habited by descendents of Georgians, Virginians and 
Carohnians, occupied a most prominent position in the 
politics of Alabama. It was nearly divided between 
the two great poHtical parties. Containing the capitol, 
it enjoyed a legal bar equal to that of any other por- 
tion of the State ; and her mass meetings were there- 
fore frequently addressed by the ablest men of the 
State. At that time Montgomery was upon the most 
direct highway from New Orleans to New York. The 
energy and intellect of the whole^ country became 



302 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACT. 

familiar with her people, and aided to impart to them 
that intelligence and independence of character which is 
the result to so large a degi'ee of contact with the world. 
This district had been ably represented in Congress for 
a number of years. Dixon H. Lewis had won for him- 
self a national reputation. Henry W. Hilliard was 
also well known throughout the Union. Wu.liam L. 
Yancey had also made for himself a national reputa- 
tion. These gentlemen, better known, were not how- 
ever superior in point of character and abiUty to many 
others who had not yet played a part upon the national 
arena. With the States-Rights men it was a matter 
not only of ambition, but almost of necessity to wrest 
this district from the hands of the Whigs, who had 
held it but by an uncertain tenure for some years. On 
the other hand it was a matter of pride for the Whigs to 
continue to hold it, and for the Union man to defeat at 
his own door the plan of Mr. Yancey for precipitating 
secession. 

In April, 1851, the District Convention of the 
Southern Rights party met at Clayton and nominated 
Mr Yancey for Congress. In ^lay, a Union Convention 
met at the same place and nominated James Abercrom- 
BIE. The resolutions of this latter convention presented 
an earnest " appeal to all quiet and law-abiding citizens 
" to aid with their influence and votes in arresting the 
" wild and fiery spu'it of disunion." The Convention 
also adopted the Georgia Platform, which accepted the 
compromise measures as a permanent adjustment of 
sectional controversy. That platform after accepting 
the compromise measures provided that the South 
should, even to a disruption of the Union, resist certain 
measui-es if attempted by Congress.. , The measures to 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 303 

be resisted were these : Abolition by Congress of 
slavery in the district without the consent of the 
owners ; abolition of slavery at places owned by the 
United States in the slave States ; suppression of slave 
trade between the States ; refusal to admit as a State 
any territory applying for admission because of the ex- 
istence of slavery therein : any act prohibiting the in- 
troduction of slaves into the territories of Utah and New 
Mexico ; any act repealing or materially modifying 
the fugitive slave law. This enumeration of acts of 
Congress which would justify resistance does not in- 
clude an act of Congress prohibiting the introduction of 
slavery into other territory than that acquired from 
Mexico. The reason for this omission may be found in 
the fact that the compromise measures of 1850 were 
held to deal only with the Mexican territory. The 
Missouri Compromise dealt only with the territory ac- 
quired with Louisiana. The latter act was held by the 
Whigs generally not to have been repealed by the 
former. The}^ argued that it did not follow, because a 
part of the Mexican acquisition extended above 36 de- 
grees 30 minutes, and any part even above that Une, 
might come into the Union with slavery, therefore an 
act forbidding slavery above 36 degrees 30 minutes in 
the Louisiana acquisition was null and void. The 
Georgia platform therefore, holding to the compromise 
of 1850 as a final adjustment declared that the exclusion 
by Congress of slavery from any of the Mexican ac- 
quisition justified resistance, and was silent as to a simi- 
lar exclusion from other territory. In the opinion of 
the friends of that platform the whole question of slave- 
ry in the territories was settled so far as the Mexican 
territory was concerned by the compromise of 1 850; and 



304 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

SO far as the rest of the territories was concerned, by 
the Missouri Compromise. If this had not been their 
opinion they would have announced in their platform 
that the prohibition by Congress of the introduction of 
slaves into any of the territories would justify re- 
sistance. 

The Union Convention of the Montgomery District, 
adopting the Georgia platform, held that the Missouri 
Compromise was not repealed by the compromise of 
1850. Mr. Stephens, in his "History of the United 
States for schools," says that the compromise for 1850 
established the principle of non-intervention for all the 
territories in lieu of the Missouri Compromise. As he 
was one of the committee who drafted the Georgia plat- 
form it is strange that he provided for resistance as to 
Utah and New Mexico, and not as to other territory. 
The argument set forth at a much later day than 1850 
that the Missouri restriction was removed by the adop- 
tion of the new compromise which omitted such a re- 
striction in the case of the newly acquired territory (a 
restriction to which the first compromise, of course, could 
not apply), did not meet the approval of the Whigs and 
Union Democrats of 1851. They held that in these 
compromises there was no question of principle ; and 
tjiat the Missouri restriction over territory of the Louis- 
iana purchase was no more inconsistent with non-restric- 
tion over territory of the Mexican purchase, than re- 
striction above the hne of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, was 
inconsistent with non-restriction below the line. 

Immediately following the Union Convention, the 
Southern Rights Association met at iviontgomery and 
was addressed by Mr. Yancey in one of his brilliant and 
captivating speeches. He declared that the only issue 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 305 

before the people was secession, and that he would make 
no fjiLse issue ; that his principles were founded on the 
Constitution and must ultimately prevail ; that he wore 
them as a frontlet between his eyes that all the world 
might see them. He thereupon proposed a series of 
resolutions urging separate secession. lie stated that 
he had private advices to the effect that South Carolina 
would secede the next spring ; that she had one hun- 
dred pieces of artillery ready, more than twenty 
thousand small arms, and a large quantity of military 
stores. Mr. Yancey declined the nomination for Con- 
gress. He fully understood that the people were not 
ready for his extreme movement, and hence determined 
not to let defeat dim the lustre of his shield. In his 
letter declining the nomination he said that there were 
but two parties, the Secession party and the Submission 
party. Rehearsing the perils of the South and the 
difficulty of co-operation, he closed by saying " In this 
" view 1 am decidedly in favor of preparing the State 
" by all proper means for exerting the right of 
" secession." 

In marked contrast with Mr. Yancey's letter was that 
of Mr. Abercrombie accepting the Union nomination. 
lie stood by the measures of 1850, and planted him- 
self firmly on the Georgia platform. He would battle 
for the Union, with the slavery question settled as to 
the territories and not to be disturbed, but he would not 
submit to further encroachments at the hands of the 
North. 

John Cochran, of Eufaula, a lawyer of great ability, 
was nominated in place of Mr. Yancey. This gentle- 
man after the passage of the compromise measures had 
written a letter to Mr. Ritchie, editor of the Washington 



306 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Union, in which he said that " they perfect the degra- 
" dation of the South in the Union, and nothing can 
" redeem her but secession." Further on, he said : 
" I pray God that the South may tear herself from the 
" power of the monster which does not conceal its pur- 
" pose. I do not think the Union will be dissolved 
" immediately, but I believe, and rejoice in the belief, 
" that at this moment there is amongst us here a leaven 
" of disunion, which by a more or less rapid, but per- 
" ceptibly certain, process will leaven the whole lump. 
" We feel that in the confederacy we are degraded, and 
" have now no remedy but secession." The author of 
these sentiments was sustained in the canvass by Mr. 
Yancey, the States-Rights associations, and by almost 
the entire Democratic party. On the other hand Mr. 
Abercrombie was sustained by Mr. Hilliard, the entire 
Whig party, and a few hundred Union Democrats. It 
may be said that the contest in this district was one 
between the Whig party as representing submission to 
the Compiumise Acts, and the Democratic party as rep- 
resenting secession from the Union. 

Mr. Cochran was a member of the Southern Rights 
Association of Eufaula. That association had adopted 
a report on " Southern wrongs and remedies" made 
by the chairman of a committee, James L. Pugh, Esq., 
afterward member of Congress, which set forth the views 
of the States-Rights party upon the questions at issue 
and left no doubt as to the position held by Mr. 
Cochran. 

I. The report reviewed the compromise measures at 
length. It declared that the admission of CaHfornia, 
without the formality of a preceding territorial enabling 
act, was an outrage on the South becatfce half of the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 307 

State lay south of 36 degrees 30 minutes, and the peo- 
[)le of the South should have been given time in which 
to introduce their slaves and compete for the plan of the 
constitution. It declared that, by a convention of the 
Southern States making the demand, " California may 
*•' yet be divided, and the Southern people allowed an 
" opportunity of establishing therein the institution of 
" slavery." 

To this declaration, it was replied that California was 
properly admitted ; that the Constitution gave Congress 
the power to admit new States and was silent as to the 
manner of admission. The mode and manner were left 
entirely to the discretion of Congress. While injustice 
was shown the South in the haste with which that State 
was admitted without an enabling; act ; no practical nor 
constitutional injustice was done his people. There was 
no probability of slavery being carried to California, if 
she remained a territory for ten years. The rapid 
influx of a mining population from all over the world, 
hostile to slavery, made it necessary that a State gov- 
ernment should be speedily formed, and rendered it im- 
possible for the institution of slavery to have more than 
a handful of supporters. The fact that half of Cahfor- 
nia lay south of 36 degrees 30 minutes did not give 
the South any more rights in the southern portion than 
in the northern. The Missouri Compromise line did 
not apply to the Mexican acquisition ; and if it had ap- 
plied thereto, it would simply have excluded slavery 
north of 86 degrees 30 minutes, and left the people 
south of that line to exclude it or not as they might 
see proper. The people of California had seen proper 
to exclude slavery, and the Union party was read|^ to 
vindicate the right of that people to have slaves or not 



308 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

as they saw proper. It was contended that such de- 
mands as this for the division of California, after slie 
had been admitted as a State, when it was certain that 
slavery could by no possibility be voted into any one 
of the proposed divisions, tended to damage the South 
by putting her in a false position. By preferring un- 
reasonable demands she would not be listened to with 
respect and consideration when her demands were just 
and proper. They were ready to be aggressive at all 
times when the power of the people was illegally shorn 
away, but they were not wilhng to be aggressive simply 
for the purpose of preserving what was called a balance 
of power in the United States Senate between the free 
and slave States. If a State wished to be a free State 
it iiad a right to be so, whether the so-called balance of 
povv.T was affected or not. They had no fault to find 
with I lie two Senators from Alabama for voting against 
the admission of California, since a delay in her admis- 
sion might have developed a fairer and fuller expiession 
of the opinion of her people; they were to be com- 
mended for refusing to join in the protest made by the 
ten Southern Senators. Penators Clemens and King 
deserved the thanks of the State for refusing to sign a 
paper protesting against the admission of a State and 
threatening dissolution of the Union because of such 
admission, simply because half of it was not made a 
slave State without regard to the wish of the people. 

II. The Southern Rights report objected to the com- 
promise, in the next place, because Congretss had not 
i-epealed the local law which abolished slavery in Utah 
and New Mexico when they were a part of Mexico. 
" Now," we ask, say the committee in their report, 
" if the refusal to repeal the Mexican law, upon the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 309 

" ground stated, does not indicate the same hostilit}'^ by 
" the Federal Government to the institution of slavery 
" as the passage directly of the Wilmot Proviso. vSince 
" the passage of the great ' peace measures,' and in the 
" midst of the ' patriotic rejoicings' over the prostra- 
" tion of Southern rights and honor, insult has been 
" added to injury by the introduction of bills to apply 
" this odious Proviso to the territories of Utah and 
" New Mexico. Then, what security is there in carry- 
" ing slaves to these territories ? " To these questions 
it was replied that the compromise acts, so far as the 
teiritories acquired from Mexico were concerned, did 
ample justice to the South. They might come into 
the Union with or without slavery. So the act provided ; 
and not even the Missouri restriction had been applied 
to them. The local law of Mexico no longer existed. 
The constitution, and the rules and regulations made 
by Congress for the territories, had abrogated it ; and 
the slave owner could take his property to New Mexico 
just as he could take it to Missouri and Arkansas be- 
fore their admission as States. To say that the Union 
should be dissolved because the Wilmot Proviso could 
be made to apply to a territory at some future day, was 
to anticipate ills which might never happen. There 
was always risk in taking slaves to a territory, because, 
on the formation of a State constitution, slavery miglit 
be abolished ; but that was a risk attendant on the na- 
ture of the property. The Wilmot Proviso had been 
invariably defeated ; and now, if the people of the South 
showed a determination to stand by the compromise 
measures as a final settlement of the slavery question, 
we need have no apprehension that the Wilmot Proviso 
will gain the victory in Congress. There will always 



310 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERACY. 

be agitators and fanatics who will press it forward, but 
the conservative sentiment of the whole country will 
alwa}' s defeat it. Let us not then rush into disunion 
because of apprehensions which have no solid basis. 

HI. The report objected to the settlement of the 
Texas boundary question, under which a portion of 
Texas was added to New .; exico in consideration of 
ten millions of dollars to be paid Texas by the United 
States. The objection was that enough territory was 
taken from a slave State to form two States thereafter, 
and that these two States might be brought into the 
Union under the operation of the Wilmot Proviso. To 
this it was replied that there were grave doubts as to 
whether the territory in question properly belonged to 
Texas, but that if Texas chose to part with it for ten 
millions of dollars, there certainly could be no objection 
raised by any one else ; and that so far as the danger 
of having the Wilmot Proviso applied to that section 
was involved, the same proviso could, by the same 
power, be applied to the identical territory were it to 
remain a part of Texas, and at some future day, by the 
permission of that State, apply for admission to the 
Union. If the provisions of the New Mexican act 
were to be iuA^alidated hereafter by application of the 
Wilmot Proviso, the provisions of the act admitting 
Texas could be as easily invalidated. This objection 
then must fall to the ground. It was simply a general 
objection that the people of the Noi'th would not unite 
with those of the South in stiinding by Clay, Webster, 
Fillmore, and Cass, and their compeers, in abiding by 
the compromise. Let us see whether they would not, 
beibre we prefer extravagant demands, however just 
and constitutional, and before we declare ourselves 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONEEDERACY. 311 

ready for disunion, and even before we know whether 
our demands are accepted or rejected. The Union men 
were opposed to this constant drawing of heavy drafts 
on the patriotism of the great conservative masses of 
the North. Those masses were disposed to give us all 
our rights under the Constitution, but they were op- 
posed to slavery, and we must not expect them to legis- 
late with a view of preserving what we call a balance of 
power. 

IV. The report next objected to the abolition of the 
slave trade in the District of Columbia. " If Congress 
" has a right to say that a slave shall be free when 
" brought into the District for sale, it can also say that 
" he shall be free when brought there to labor." To 
this it was replied that Congress undoubtedly had the 
right not only to stop the slave trade in the District, 
but even to abohsh it there. It was thought that the 
latter step should not be taken except upon a vote of 
the people of the District ; but so far as the prohibition 
of the slave markets in the District was concerned the 
Union men were wiUing to yield so much at the seat of 
Government to the prejudices of that large portion of 
mankind who were sensitive as to the slave trade. It 
was not necessary to keep up a slave auction under the 
very windows of the Capitol. If any one in the Dis- 
trict desired to purchase a slave he could do so in 
ten or twenty minutes by crossing the river. The 
continuance of the slave auctions in the District did 
more than all else to keep up the agitation against 
slavery at the North. It might be well for the South 
that they were discontinued. 

V. In conclusion the report declared that the South 
should meet in convention and demand that California 



312 THE CKADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

be divided, and the southern portion be allowed to estab- 
lish slavery. If the north should not acquiesce, then 
the South should make immediate preparations to 
secede. " Discard all past political differences" — 
" Turn aside from the Submissionist as your worst 
" enemy"-^" Starve out the National Submission press 
" at the South" — " Exclude all Northern newspapers 
"from our midst" — " Patronize Southern Ministers and 
" Churches" — " Cease visiting Northern watering 
" places" — were among the suggestions of the States- 
Rights pronunciamento. 

To the general argument that the South would bo 
shorn of her rights in the Union, it was answered that 
the only protection for slavery was in the Union ; that 
the South could not expect the people of the North to 
vote slavery into the territories or aid in making con- 
stitutions recognizing slavery; that all efforts to con- 
tinue to bring in a slave State whenever a free State 
was introduced must in the end prove futile ; that the 
South had neither the population nor the slaves to 
spread over vast territories. The question was simply 
reduced to this : Shall Alabama secede from the Union 
because possibly after a series of years three-fourths 
of the States may be free States and may amend the 
Constitution so as to abolish slavery ? That event 
may happen. If it should, it would be a Constitutional 
proceeding. But certainly there would be no emanci- 
pation without compensation to masters. The alterna- 
tive then arises : Is it better for Alabama to await 
gradual emanoipation at some far distant day under a 
compensatory system, than to break up the Union, 
rush into civil war, and lose in disaster all that we are 
contending for? Most of the Alabama Unionists did 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 313 

not believe in peaceable secession. No government 
in the woiid had ever broken to pieces except with civil, 
war. They would not stop to argue the question of 
secession. That was a question they never argued. 
If the right of [leaceable secession existed, it was no 
peaceable right if denied by the other side. All the 
North denied it to be a right. All the border States 
denied it. Even Virginia had held that the Supreme 
Court was the conmion arbiter between the States and 
the General Government. A large and perhaps con- 
trolling portion of the South denied the right at heart. 
If they were willing to break up the Union, they would 
go into the movement with the expectation of doing 
what our grandfathers did at Lexington and not of 
reading the resolutions of 1798 at the mouth of a can- 
non. The right of peaceable secession was being urged 
by Mr. Yancey they said for the purpose of deluding the 
people into the belief that there would be no war in case 
of disunion. By removing the idea of danger it is 
hoped that converts may be more rapidly made. Let 
not the people be blinded to the truth ! There can I )e 
no such thing as peaceable disunion. When secession 
is once entered upon, the country will be deluged in 
blood. If we win we will be called patriots. If we lose we 
will be called traitors. That is the sum and substance 
of the right of peaceable secession. It is nothing more 
than the natural right of revolution, which all would be 
ready to assert when our grievances were too great to 
be borne. At present they did not believe our griev- 
ances were so serious as to justify secession. They 
had watched with alarm the growing spirit of hostility 
to the South and her rights — but were satisfied that 
the conservative element of the country would always 



314 THE CRADLE OF THE f!ONFEDERA.CY. 

rally to our defence in an emergency, as it had done in 
Jhe recent adjustment. That compromise was not all 
they wished, but it was more than they expected. 
They were billing to stand by it as a final settlemont 
of the slavery dispute between the North and the South. 

The contest between Cochran and Abercrombie 
raged bitterly throughout the District, but at the elec- 
tion, Abercrombie was returned with an unprecedented 
majority. From one end of the State to the other, and 
in the largest slave-holding counties, the advocates of 
secession were routed horse, foot, and dragoons. Mr. 
Yancey was mortified to see the Gulf States ratifying 
the compromise and denouncing disunion — the very 
strongholds of the secession party giving unusual large 
majorities for the Union candidates — and even South 
Carolina failing to give the i^equisite vote for secession. 

The acquisition of Texas was undoubtedly a move- 
ment by Southern leaders for the purpose of preserving 
the balance between the slave and free States. But 
the Mexican war had accomplished more than they 
intended. It had given Texas to the South ; but it 
had also given California and Utah, and possibly New 
Mexico, to the North. All of the five States into 
which Texas was expected to be divided eventually, 
might or might not be admitted as slave States ; all the 
other larger territory was almost certain to become 
free States. The balance of pow(^r must be secured in 
some other way. The Southern leaders cast their eyes 
on Cuba. Narcisso Lopez, a native of Venezuela, a 
veteran soldier of Spain, and for some years a r 'sident 
of Cuba, visited the United States in 1849 for the pur- 
pose of enlisting sympathy in behalf of Cuban inde- 
pendence, and of organizing a military expedition for 



TfiE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 315 

the invasion of that island. On his arrival at Wash- 
ington, Mr. Calhoun called upon him, and upon the 
following day repeated his visit. The pohcy which 
had urged the distinguished South Carolinian to secure 
Texas to the South, now urged him to secure Cuba. 
If the South remained in the Union the accession of 
Cuba would give several more slave States. If the 
South seceded, the possession of the island would add 
greatly to the resources of a Southern Confederacy. 
In either event, therefore, it became the pohcy of the 
South to aid and encourage the attempt of Lopez. The 
leading States-Rights men immediately enlisted them- 
selves in the enterprise. Lopez visited Gen. Quitman. 
and proposed that they divide the civil and military 
leadership of the enterprise between them. Lopez was 
to be President of Cuba, and Quitman was to be 
Commandino; General in the field. Had the ofler been 
accepted, there can be no doubt that an immense force 
would have raUied to the call of Q jitman. The soldiers 
of his old Division were scattered from Charleston to 
New Orleans. Each one of them would have become 
a recruiting oificer ; for the nanii of their old leader 
would give confidence and dignity to an enterprise 
which, under the lead of a stranger, would be open to 
suspicion and distrust. Quitman was then Governor of 
Mississippi. He was ardently in favor of secession, and 
fully expected that disunion would occur during his 
administration. A State convention had been called, 
and he could not find it consistent with his duty to lead 
a military movement, however promising of glory and 
renown, against a foreign people, when his services as 
a leader were now demanded by the States-Rights 



3i6 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

party in a movement at home which promised no less 
renown and military glory. 

Soon after the decision of Gen. Quitman, Lopez 
embarked for Cuba with a small volunteer force under 
O'Hara, Wheat, Pickett, Hawkins and Bell. His men 
were chiefly from Kentucky. Landing at Cardenas, 
he repulsed an attacking force of Spanish troops, but 
meeting no encouragement from the people, re-em- 
barked intending to make another landing. The 
"Spanish steamer Pizarro giving him chase, he was 
compelled to run into Key Wevst, where his force was 
disbanded. Not disheartened by his first failure, he 
proceeded to effect a new organization, visiting New 
Orleans and several places in Mississippi. Everywhere 
he was received with enthusiasm. At Gainesville, 
Miss., he spoke to a large meeting, and with singular 
address aroused a warlike feehng. Though born in 
another land, and speaking a different language, he was 
not ignorant, he said, of the history of Mississippi. 
He knew what she had achieved in 1815 on the plains 
of Chalmette, where the gallant Hinds at the head of 
her dragoons braved the fire of the whole British lino, 
and became the pride of one army and the admiration 
of another. He remembered the deadly execution of 
her rifles at the storming of Monterey the flashing 
sword of Davis on the field of Buena Vista — her battle- 
riven banner when it was planted on the walls of Mexico 
by the heroic Quitman. With these memories of 
brilliant events, he came from a kindred and friendly 
State — from noble-hearted Louisiana — to breathe for a 
few days the pure air of youi- forests and to tread a 
soil consecrated to Liberty. He desired to know and 
to mingle with his brother republicans, anxious to see 



■J 
THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 317 

and to study their practical exemplifications of free 
government, and to witness the phenomenon of a whole 
people engaged in trade, agricullure and mechanics, 
comprehending and practicing the political problems 
that Europe, with all its philosophy, refinement and 
learning has never been able to solve. 

The compromise measures had passed, and the 
prospect for Southern secession was less favorable than 
ever. At least Quitman believed so, and thinking that 
his sword would not be demanded by his own State, 
he now inclined more favorably towards the proposi- 
tion of Lopez It was generally believed that he would 
head the Cuban movement. The Grand Jury of the 
United States Court at New Orleans found a bill against 
Gen. Quitman, John Henderson, and others, for setting 
on foot the invasion of Cuba. The question arose, 
could the Governor of a sovereign State be carried 
away to another State by the General Government to 
answer a criminal charge ? General Quitman was dis- 
posed to resist the attempt. If such a power rested 
with the General Government, the sovereignty ol the 
State was gone. At any moment her officers might 
be abducted and the wheels of government either 
stopped or left in the hands of subordinates, who might 
be the tools of the arresting power. Suppose a case in 
which the Governor, elected by the people, was opposed 
to the party in power at Washington, and the Lieut. 
Governor, elected by the Senate, was frieudl}- to that 
party, and to any schemes which it might favor, the 
arrest and abduction of the Governor on any pretended 
charge, would defeat the will and safety of the people. 
Suppose a new-elected General Assembly about to 
convene, should be almost divided betw^een the fiiends 



318 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

and opponents of the Administration at Washington, 
how easy could the will of the people be defeated by 
tlie arrest and abduction of enough of the majority 
party to leave the organization of the Legislature in 
the hands of the minority party ! Gen. Quitman 
denied the power of the United States to arrest him. 
Hon. Jacob Thompson wrote to him from Washington : 
" If they can arrest, they can refuse bail; if they can 
" refuse bail, they can, without trial, take him away 
" from his duty, incarcerate him, and by I'endering it 
" impossible for him to perform his official duties, vir- 
" tually vacate the office of Governor and It^ve the 
" Sbite without a Chief Executive. This is an absurd- 
" ity. The consequence of the power claimed annihi- 
" lates State sovereignty, and soon we may expect to 
'' sec Governors of States, like ^oman satraps, brought 
" to the capital in chains if the power claimed is tamely 
" submitted to." Hon. R. Barnewell Rhett called 
upon the Governor to resist, and thus bring about a 
collision between the State and Federal forces, which 
must ultimately involve the whole South. 

Gen. Quitman was wiser than his counsellors. He 
saw that if the South would not resist the Compromise 
Acts, they would not enter into a war with the General 
Government because of an indictment found by a 
Grand Jury against a citizen who happened to be Gov- 
ernor. The people sympathized with Quitman, but 
they held that every citizen, however high his position, 
was amenable to the laws, and that the Governor of a 
State should be arrested for counterfeiting the coin, 
robbing the mail, piracy, or breaking the neutrality 
laws, as though he were a private citizen. The argu- 
ment which would apply to the Governor, would apply 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 319 

equally to every Executive and Legislative officer of a 
State. If none of these could be arrested by the 
United Slates, then we would see the strange spectacle 
of thousands of citizens, shielded by the possession of 
an office, violating the laws of the Federal Government 
with impunity. There were inconveniences connected 
with this power to arrest State officers ; but no system 
of government could be devised in which such incon- 
veniences would not occui'. Politics was not one of 
the exact sciences. So fallible was human nature that 
all the wisdom of all the ages was not adequate to foresee 
the various problems which would arise. 

Quitman determined to resign the office of Governor 
and to stand his trial. The jury made a mistrial 
in the case of Henderson, and thereupon the case 
iigainst Quitman was dismissed. When he left the 
court-room there was a great manifestation of popular 
sentiment in his favor. Deputations fi'om Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina waited upon 
him, oilering congratulations. This display of feeling 
arose from the profound impression on the Southern 
mind that Quitman was actually enlisted in the Cuban 
enterprise, and was destined to be the liberator of that 
fair island. The whole South sympathized in the 
movement ; the States-Rights party, because in the 
event of Southern .secession they contemplated a mag- 
nificent Confederacy of slave-holding States, including 
Cuba, Mexico and Central America — the old dream of 
Aaron Burr ; the Union party, because in the annex- 
ation of Cuba the preservation of the balance of power 
would postpone that dreaded day when three-fourths of 
the States would be anti-slavery. 

A mass meeting was called at Montgomery, August 



320 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

5, 1851, to express sympathy for and proffer aid to 
the Cuban independence movement. Gen. Wm. Tay- 
lor was called to the chair, and James H. Clanton, a 
young and active Whig, was invited to address the 
people. Taking the -stand, he made a most eloquent 
appeal in behalf of Cuba, avowing the deepest sympathy 
in the struggle of the patriots and offering his personal 
services in their behalf He concluded by offering a 
resolution, which was unanimously adopted, calling upon 
the Government to recognize the independence of the 
island. Judge Bidb offered a resolution soliciting con- 
tributions for the cause. At the close of Clanton's 
speech many wealthy citizens came forward with liberal 
subscriptions, and a number of young men enrolled 
themselves in a company for the purpose of joining the 
expeditionary force of Lopez. That force had sailed 
for New Orleans a few days before. The Montgomery 
company elected Clanton Captain, and proceeded to 
New Orleans. There they found not less than two 
thousand volunteers awaiting transportation. A regi- 
ment was organized with Wheat as Colonel and Clan- 
ton as Lieutenant Colonel. The troops received every 
attention from the hospitable citizens of New Orleans, 
but they were eager and impatient to embark. They 
longed to set foot on the beautiful island, and to see at 
last the stars and stripes floating over Moro Castle. 
While chafing at the delay of embarking, one morning 
came the startling news uf the defeat of Lopez, his cap- 
ture and execution. lie had separated himself from 
the command of Crittenden, had relied too much upon 
the co-operation of the Cubans, and had departed from 
New Orleans without waiting for the troops which were 
now pouring in from all quarters. Had he taken the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 321 

advice of Quitman, kept his force united, debarked at a 
more distant port, secured the arrival of an army of 
five thousand men at one time, his expedition woukl 
have doubtless been crowned with victory. He failed, 
and thus added another to the many proofs that no 
great enterprises can be pressed to success under the 
lead of the dark and hybrid races of Central America. 
Lopez was executed by the garote, and Col. Crittenden 
and his men were shot. When ordered to his knees, 
Crittenden replied : " Americans kneel only to their 
Godr 

The Union party having achieved a signal victory 
all over the South, the States-Rights associations 
resolved in their several meetings to adjourn the ques- 
tion of secession. It was not to be dismissed, but to 
remain in abeyance. Mr. Yancey's policy was to keep 
his forces well organized and to seize the next pretext 
for an advance movement. To strengthen their posi- 
tion, which had been considerably weakened by the 
repulse on the Compromise questions, a majority of the 
States-Rights leaders deemed it best to withdraw under 
shelter of the Democratic organization. By drawing 
back 'to the Democratic party those who had been 
acting with the Union party, they forced the residue 
of the Unionists to return to the Whig organization. 
It was a piece of masterly generalship to load the Anti- 
Secession party of Alabama with the sins of the 
free-soil wing of the Whig party of the North; to attack 
them as partisans of Seward rather than as supporters of 
the Union. The Union men understood the tactics of 
the Secessionists, and struggled to preserve the Union 
organization. A Union meeting was held at Mont- 
gomery in December, 1857. The call for it was 



322 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

signed by all the leading Whigs of the General Assem- 
bly and several leading Democrats, but when it met no 
Democrat of prominence participated in its- session. 
They determined to send delegates to a National Union 
Convention, and to urge upon their approaching State 
Convention the duty of joining a national organization 
which would abide by the Compromise, and alike battle 
asainst the Secessionists on the one hand and the 
Abolitionists on the other. It was their hope that the 
friends of the Compromise all over the Union would 
unite upon this as a final settlement of the slavery 
question, and nominate Mr. Fillmore for the Presidency. 
Before the State Union Convention could meet, how- 
ever, there were developments of public opinion which 
divided the Union ranks. The Union Democrats, 
finding that the Democratic party would sustain the 
Compiomise unequivocally as a final settlement, deserted 
the Union organization in mass and rallied under their 
old colors. Of the Whigs who were left, there were a 
large majority who saw the futility of attempting to 
make a National organization of Whigs alone, under a 
new name at the South, so long as the Whigs at the 
North retained their old designation and were preparing 
to go into a National Convention. They argued that, 
without some of the Southern States, the Whig party 
could not carry the Presidential election, and that 
rather than lose the support of Southern Whigs, the 
National Convention would endorse the Compromise; 
that if the Compromise was not endorsed, it would then 
be time to separate from the party ; and that rather 
than esta,blish a sectional party, as would be a Union 
party composed of Southern Whigs alone, it would be 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 323 

preferable to repose confidence in the National Whig 
organization. So thought Mr. Hilliard. 

A poition of the Alabama Whigs thought differently. 
They believed that a return to the Whig party would 
be a surrender of their organization into the hands of 
the FreeSoilers. Mr. Watts published a letter in May, 
in which he advocated a continuance of the Union 
organization. " Look," said he, " at the vote of the 
" Democratic caucus assembled at the commencement 
" of the present Congress, repudiating the Compromise 
" as a finality. Look at the vote in Congress on the 
i^ resolution of Mr. Jackson, of Ga., as amended by Mr. 
" HiLLYER, showing that Northern members of Congress, 
" as well as many Southern members, are not in favor 
" of standing firmly by the Compromise. And, above 
•■' all, look on the decision of the Whig Congressional 
"caucus recently assembled in Washington City." 
Not to unite with the National Whig Convention was 
a duty, insisted Mr. Watts, which we owed " to the 
" Southern Whigs who withdrew from the Congressional 
" caucus, and to the other noble Whigs who refused to 
" go into it after the announcement of the chairman of 
"the caucus that he would entertain no resolutions 
" looking to the finality of the Compromise measures." 
The vote upon the resolution of Mr. Jackson, to which 
Mr. Watts here referred — a resolution to recognize the 
binding elliciency of the Compromises of the Constitu- 
tion and to abide by such Compromises and to sustain 
the laws to carry them out — was as follows : 



Yeas. 

Northern Democrats 35 

Soutbei-n Democrats 39 

Southern Whigs 20 

Northern Whigs 7 

Total JOl 



Nays. 

Nortliern Democrats 22 

Southern Democrats 11 

Soutlxeru Whigs 1 

Northern Whigs 30 

Total 64 



324 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEKACY. 

Mr. Watts, from this vote, drew the conclusion that 
the Northern Democrats were dangerously divided as 
to making the Compromise a conclusion of the slavery 
agitation ; that the Southern Democrats were materially 
divided as shown by the vote, and were known to be 
far more dangerously divided than the vote shows ; 
that the Northern Whigs were also dangerously divided, 
with the preponderance largely in favor of renewed 
agitation ; and that the Southern Whigs were alone 
united. From this conclusion he argued that the 
Southern Whigs should maintain the Union organiza- 
tion, and gradually draw to its support all those ele- 
ments which voted yea upon Mr. Jackson's resolution. 
To do so would be to settle the slavery question now 
and forever, by depriving it of material upon which to 
opc;:ite. Not to do so would be to leave the question 
an element of discord in both the Whig and Demo- 
cratic organizations until it should rend both in twain 
and plunje the country into civil war. To confirm 
this view of Watts, Clanton, Judge and other far- 
seeing and patriotic Southern Whigs, the New York 
Tribune, representing the Sewaud Whigs, replied to 
the protest of the Southern Whigs at the Congressional 
caucus : 

" Oh green and verdant gentlemen of the House of 
" Representatives, ye who vainly fancy that carrying 
" the Compromise measures through your illustrious 
" body is a great political stroke, eyen a triumph over 
" an ever-active principle in the heart of man, it is time 
" you were resolving that the sun shall stand still on 
" Gideon. It is time that you were erecting a stage 
" under the ends of the rainbow in order to spike it on 
" to the sky. It is time you had resolvel that the 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERAOY. 325 

"ocean should cease to surge, the streams to flow or 
*' the seasons to return. You cannot * compromise ' a 
'' question of human freedom." 

When the State Union Convention met, those who 
believed that the Whig party would endorse the Com- 
promise and that the Democratic party would not, 
proved to be in the ascendant ; and the Convention, 
after a faint and feeble recommendation for a National 
Union Convention, dissolved, with the general under- 
standing that the Whig party was restored. Mr. 
HiLLiARD, who had been favorc^d with exalted trusts 
under the Harrison, and again under the Taylor 
Administration, ever eager for a wide national theatre 
of action, and ambitious of the })ower which success 
would give the leaders of a national party, led off, at a 
Macon county meeting, in favoi- of sending delegates to 
the Whig Convention. The Pickens county Whigs 
replied with a similar movement, and forthwith the 
blows of the Democratic party shattered to utter disso- 
lution the remaining walls of the Union party. Noth- 
ing was now left of the organization which defeated 
secession in 1850. The Whigs had cast everything 
upon the chances of the Baltimore Convention. If they 
lost, what would follow ? 

If the Whig Convention did not fulty and fairly 
accept the Compromise, it would follow that the Southern 
Whigs, constituting a large minority of the Southern 
people, and one wljich by the aid of Union Democrats 
could always arrest an attempt at secession, would be 
left powerless. If slavery agitation was to contiime, 
they must take the side of their people and their 
property, and demand for then' protection every guar- 
anty of the Constitution. If the North would not 



326 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

accept a compromise in which the Free-: tate party 
received every advantage and the South gave up more 
than half of her constitutional rights, then the Whigs 
of the South would also hoist the banner of States- 
llights and abide the issue. 

" Let us go and demand the Compromise," said the 
Whig papers of Alabama. 

The evening before the meeting of the Whig National 
Convention at Baltimore, a caucus of Southern Whigs 
adopted and resolved to submit to the Convention the 
following resolution : 

" That the series of measures commonly known as 
" the Compromise, including the Fugitive Slave Law, 
" are received and acquiesced in by the Whig party of 
" the United States, as a settlement in principle and 
" substance — a final settlement — of the dangerous and 
" exciting questions which they embrace ; and, so far as 
'• the Fugitive Slave Law is concerned, we will maiu- 
" tain the same, and insist on a strict enforcement, 
" until time and experience shall demonstrate the 
" necessity of further legislation, to guard against 
" evasion or abuse, not impairing its present efficiency ; 
" and we deprecate all fiirther agitation of the slavery 
" question as dangerous to our peace, and will discoun- 
" tenance all efforts at the renewal or continuance of 
" such agitation in Congress or out of it, whenever, 
"'^Iwherever and however the attempt may be made ; 
"and we will maintain the system of measures as a 
" policy essential to the nationality of the Whig party 
" and the integrity of the Union.'''' 

If this resolution were not adopted substantially, the 
Southern Whigs were to withdraw. It will be ob- 
served that it embraced — 

'' I St. A distinct recognition of and acquiescence in 
" a compromise or settlement, embracing a series of mea- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 3^7 

" sures known by that name and including the Fugitive 
" law. 

''2d. A declaration that sdXA settlement shall be final. 

"3d. A declaration that the Fugitive law, as a part 
" of such settlement, shall be maintained and enforced 
" until further legislation is required to guard against 
" abuse or evasion. 

" 4th. A declaration against the further agitation of 
" the Slavery question, in Congress or out of it ; and a 
" further declaration that the policy thus set forth in 
'• the various averments of the resolution is essential to 
*' the na^ionahty of the Whig pyrty." 

Such was the Southern Whig demand, presented as 
containing no one point which could be spared, if the 
Whig party was to be a national and not a sectional 
party. This resolution was emasculated by the Com- 
mittee of the Convention and adopted by that body in 
the following language : 

" 3. That the series of acts of the Thirty-first Con- 
"gress, the act known as the Fugitive Slave Law 
" included, are received and acquiesced in by the Whig 
" party of the United States as a settlement, in principle 
" and substance, of the dangerous and exciting ques- 
" tions which they embrace ; and, so far as they are 
"concerned, we will maintain them, and insist upon 
"their strict enforcement, until time and experience 
" shall demonstrate the necessity of further legisla- 
" tion to guard against the evasion of the laws on 
" the one hand, and the abuse of their powers on the 
" other — not impairing their present etficiency ; and 
" we deprecate all further agitation ol the questions 
" thus settled as dangerous to our peace, and will dis- 
" countenance all eiforts to continue or renew such 
•' agitation, whenever^ wherever or however the attempt 
" may be made ; and we will maintain this system as 



328 THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERACY. 

" essential to the nationality of the Whig party and the 
" integrity of the Union.'" 

It will be observed that this resolution differs from 
the other in these respects : 

" ] St. It contains no sort of recognition of the feet 
" that there has been any compromise at all ^^o such 
" term, no such fact, no such idea appears in it. 

"2d. Still less does it recognize, or in any way 
" allude to any iinal settlement. 

" 3d. The re^-olution, so far from recognizing any 
" special covenant obligation in the compromise 
" measures, puts them all upon precisely the same 
" footing with every other law enacted by the Thirty- 
" first Congress" 

As soon as the report was read, Mr. Rufus Choate 
sprang at once to his feet to interpose the dazzling 
shield of his eloquence between the ruins of their reso- 
lution and the objections of the Southern Whigs. 
Adroitly reminding his audience that he had not heard 
the exact terms of the last resolution, he proceeded at 
once to claim for it a merit and a character to which its 
exact terms present a marked contrast. He under- 
stood, in general, that it affirmed the finality of the 
Compromise, and that it deprecated any further political 
agitation on the subject of slavery. And, if he lightly 
understood it, he made haste to rise and thank God 
that the doctrine for which he had contended in his 
measure and place, though circumstances were unpro- 
pitious, in Faneuil Hall, when Faneuil Hall was opened — 
if he might judge by the cheering indications — seemed 
to he sustained by the highest authority which, as a 
party man and Whig, he could recognise in the Con- 
vention of Union Whigs of the United States. 



*HE ORADLE OF THE OONPEDERACY. 320 

But, on the contrary, Mr. Charles Anderson, of 
Ohio, rose sturdily up to tell the plain truth about the 
whole business, and he spoke out the Whig ';reed 
bluntly. He said : " This Compromise was, after all, 
" nothing but a law like all others on the statute hook. 
'• The first Compromise of Mr. Clay was nothing more 
" than an act regulating the duties on imports. So with 
" this Compromise — it is nothing more than any other 
" law on the statute book. Those who are opposed to 
" it at the North are men who do so, not from any 
" passion on the subject, hut from sectional pride. 
" The Whigs of the free States have witnessed the 
" diminution oi' ;heir numbers — have seen their friends 
" go off by scores — on account of forcing this Compro- 
" mise upon them'''' 

The resolution of the Southern Whigs, in order to 
soothe the Northern animosity to certain features of 
the Fugitive Slave Law, provided that the law was to 
be maintained until experience should demonstrate the 
necessity of further legislation to guard against evasion 
of its provisions or an abuse of its powers. The other 
laws were to be maintained as final. But the Conven- 
tion provided that experience was to be the test oi' all 
the Compromise laws. This change in the wording of 
the resolution, taken in connection with the repeated 
declaration of members that the Compromise laws were 
no more final and fixed than other laws, and with the 
nomination of Gen. Scott over Mr. Fh^lmore and Mr. 
Webster, satisfied many leading Whigs of the South 
that as between the two National parties, it was their 
duty to cast themselves with the Democratic, which, 
to the surprise of Alabama Whigs, had endorsed the 
Compromise, with a declaration that they would resist 



330 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

all attempts at renewing in Congress or out the agita- 
tion of the slavery question. Upon this platform, all 
that the Union party of Alabama had ever asked, they 
had placed as their candidate for Vice-President a dis- 
tinguished son of Alabama who had, two years before, 
denounced the secession movement in spirited, prompt, 
and unequivocal terms. 

Immediately upon the nomination of Gen. Scott, 
Alexander H. Stephens, Robert Toombs, and James 
Johnson, of Ga., Charles James Faulkner, of Va., 
Walter Brooke, of Miss., Alexander White and James 
Abercrombie, of Ala., pubhshed a card in the Wash- 
ington papers withholding their support from the Whig 
nominees. The defection of these leading southern 
Whigs created quite a commotion in the ranks of the 
party. Mr. Abercrombie wielded a great influence in 
the Montgomery District, and Mr. White was scarcely 
less potent in the Talladega District. Still Messrs. 
Hilliard, Langdon, Watts, Belser and the bulk of 
the party in Alabama, placed upon the Whig resolu- 
tion relating to the Compromise Acts the construc- 
tion which Mr. Choate had placed upon it, and which 
its plausible language might be made to bear. They 
resolutely shut their eyes to the construction placed 
upon it by the Seward Whigs of the North, as well as 
to the position claimed for Gen. Scott by the New 
York Tribune as the ally of free-soil and emancipation. 

A Scott a; id Graham ratification meeting was held 
at Montgomery, July 7, and speeches were made by 
Moss, Belser, and Clanton. The Whig State Con- 
vention met Sept. 1 and ratified the action of the 
Baltimore Convention. 

The States-liights party found themselves in a 



» 

*HE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 331 

difficult position. They had denounced the Compro- 
mise measures, and now they were to vote to accept 
them as the least ol evils. Their Convention, which 
had assembled at Montgomery in Februaiy, had 
appointed a committee to draw up a report and address 
to the people of the State. Upon this committee were 
such distinguished lawyers and eminent citizens as W. 
L. Yancey, John A. Elmore, Sam'l F. Rice, H. M. 
Elmore, and G. W. Gayle. The address was pub- 
lished during the spring, disseminated over the State, 
and was fresh in the recollection of the people when the 
two National Conventions took action. It said that 
the Ctates-Uights associations were " composed of men 
" who believe that the tendency of old party organi- 
" zations has been to lead their members to avoid any 
" decisive action on the great slavery question, and to 
" wink at and acquiesce in aggressions on the South 
" rather than endanger party success by opposition to 
" them, and who have determined to stand aloof from 
" those parties until the wrongs done to the South, 
" while each of those parties have a 1 ministered the 
" government, shall be amply redressed and the rights 
" of the South fully guaranteed against future aggres- 
" sion'; or in the event of failure of such just demands, 
" until ' new safeguards ' have been provided for the 
" maintenance of our liberties." The address then 
argued at length the failure of the Compromise Acts to 
do the South full justice, and concluded by advising 
the people of Alabama to secede at once. It said : 

'• In view of our condition, the question forces itself 
" upon us- -' What policy does our interest and our 
" duty alike dicUite shall be pursued by us ?' In the 
" opinion of the Convention, the only issue which can 



332 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

" be made iu answer to that question is— Submission 
" or Secession. 

" The first is recommended to you under the more 
" honeyed term, ' acquiescence.' It implies that past 
" aggressions afford no ground for resistance, and that 
" your safety is not endangered by submission. 

" Fellow-citizens ! The Abolitionist recommends to 
" you to submit ! The Federalist says it is your 
" duty ! The North desires you to interpose no 
" obstacle to the success of its designs ! In what 
" consists the difference between such advice from 
" such quarters, and the same advice from some of 
" your own brethren ? Simply in this : the advice of 
" the first is dictated by a selfish desire to be unmo- 
" lested in their operations against you ; that of the 
" latter is dictated from a selfish desire, on the part of 
" the leaders, to preserve unimpaired that old party 
" organization which tends to elevate them to power 
" and place iu this government — and on the part of 
" the masses who loUow them, by that feeling of timidity 
" and love of ease, which in ages past has permitted 
"many a tyrant to rule millions of his fellow men. 
" Tories were found in the days of the Revolution to 
" denounce our fathers as ' agitators,' and to preach up 
" ' acquiescence ' in the action of the parent govern- 
" ment, and to portray the horrors of. war to the excited 
" imaginations of the weak. Men are found now to do 
" the same thing. 

'^ ' Acquiescence ' is the policy which the wisest free- 
" soiler may well advocate. A ' masterly inactivity ' 
" now, will accompHsh all his aims. Time, acting as 
" the friend of his scheme, will ripen his measures into 
"a profuse fruition. Free soil State after free soil 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 333 

'' State will come into the Union. The free soil majority 
" now in the Senate will increase with each accession. 
" The free soil majority in the House will continue to 
" enlarge its gigantic proportions. The Executive will 
" be but the reflex of a dominant free soil power in 
" the government ; while the South, with no hope of 
" corresponding territorial expansion, will be struggling 
" with the very plethora of slavery. Our public men 
" seduced from the thorny, self-denying path of duty, 
" will be found struggling for place in the affections of 
" some Northern President. And when Time shall 
" have ruthlessly produced these eflects, and the sunny 
" South has become the Ireland of the Union, the spirit 
" of ' Acquiescence ' may complacently claim them to 
" be the fruits of her policy — a poHcy but occasionally 
"and feebly disturbed by some Emmett whom the 
" suiFerings of our land may induce to attempt its 
" rescue, and whose blood will quench the i'eeble fire of 
" patriotism, which his eloquence may serve to kindle 
" in the bosoms of his abject, ' acquiescing ' coun- 
' try men." 

The language of this address stigmatized as Tories 
and Federalists those who advocated acquiescence in 
the Compromise. But the Democratic party had now 
acquiesced in it, and even more plainly and unequivo- 
cally than those who had just composed the Union 
party. What was to be done? Mr. Williams, who 
was President of the Association, and Mr. Elmore, of 
the Committee on the Address, wrote to Gen. Pierce 
and Gen. Scott asking them to define their position on 
the question of slavery. Gen. Scott replied that his 
letter of acceptance was his only reply to the numerous 
letters he received relative to his political views. Gen. 



/ 



334 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Pierce made no reply. Gen. Quitman was also written 
to. The reply of this distinguished gentleman was 
satisfactory to the association. He rejoiced to learn 
that the Southern-Rights party of Alabama still 
retained its organization. The policy whether they 
should go into the Presidential contest as an organized 
party, was one which they alone could decide. If the 
people of the whole South finally settle down into quiet 
acquiescence in this precedent set and the encroach- 
ments made by the aggressive measures in question, 
they will soon have nothing worth contending for. 

Upon the receipt of these letters, the States-Rights 
party were called together in Convention at Montgom- 
ery Sept. 13, and unanimously adopted a report 
declaring that, whereas Messrs. Pierce and Scott had 
foiled to answer the interrogatories propounded to them, 
they could not consistently vote for either. They 
therefore recommended the nomination of Ex-Gov. 
Geo. M. Troup, of Ga., and Gen. John A. Quitman, of 
Mississippi, for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency.. 

Immediately after the Democratic nomination Gen. 
Quitman had said in a published letter : 

" It was but a short time since we regarded some of 
" the compromise measures as unjust, destructive of the 
" equality of the Southern States, against the spirit, if 
" not the letter, of the Constitution, and evidence of a 
" fixed design to abolish slavery everywhere. If our 
" opinions are changed — we have found ourselves mis- 
" taken ; if these measures are so benign as to deserve a 
"place in our political creed, let us honestly make 
" proclamation to that effect, and raise altars to their 
" authors, Clay, Cass, and Foote. But if not, let us 
" not write ourselves down as asses or rogues. How 
" would Colonel Davis, Governor Brown, or I appear, 
" vindicating, defending, and approving such a platform ? 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 335 

'' Why, those political chameleons, Foote and Sharkey, 
" could not beat it. But 1 must conclude by summing 
" up : My present opinion then, is, that if Pierce be 
" nominated without any indorsement of the compro- 
" mise measures, and if he assume no other objectional 
'' positions, States-Rights men should give him their 
" support. If, on the other hand, the Convention have 
" placed him on that ebony, and topaz platform, I 
" think it will become our duty to stand aloof, or, what 
" would be better, if we can muster spirit, use our exer- 
" tions to rouse up and rally the old State-Rights Guard, 
" form societies, hold conventions, nominate a separate 
" ticket, and declare war to the knife. 

" But it may be said that such action on our part 
" might, perhaps, result in the defeat of the Democratic 
" ticket and success of the Whig. All the answer I 
" have to this is, that if Democracy is to retain power 
" by striding this centaur hobby, with Abolition head 
" and Southern tail, it had better be unhorsed. If 
" reorganized Democracy admits the absolute doctrines 
" of the existence and sovereignty of a supreme 
" national government, possessing power to coerce the 
" States, nothing will be lost by its defeat and de- 
" struction." 

The outspoken sentiments of Gen. Quitman were 
endorsed by the entire States-Rights party, yet one 
branch of it supported Gen. Pierce and the other 
repudiated him. Of the latter class, was Mr. Fisher, 
editor of the Southern Press. Writing from Washing- 
ton, he said : 

" I can not concur in the support of Pierce at all 
" with such a platform, and I can not isolate him fiom 
" it when he says it is in accordance with his judgment. 
'■• If a Southern-Rights party had resolved to support 
" him with a distinct repudiation of the platform, and 
" with a power, from its own separate organization, of 
" resisting his administration in any attempt to pursue 



I'-' 



336 THE CRADLE OF THE CONTEDEEACY. 

"the compromise polic}^, I could have co-operated. 
" But you must forgive me for saying that I consider 
" it one of the most disastrous signs of the times that 
" men of the two extremes, Free Soilers and Fire- 
" eaters, hasten into parties and yet repudiate the 
" platforms. It looks like a love of party for the sake 
" of party. The consequence is, the success of the 
" Democratic party will .be the complete ascendency of 
" Compromise faction, and the continual defection 
" of Southern-Rights men in or-der to obtain place." 

Of the former class was Hon. E. C. Wilkinson, of 
Miss., one of the Pierce electors, who, writing to 
Quitman, said : 

" It would doubtless have been better lor the party 
" with which I am now acting, if you had not pursued 
" this course, but I can not say that I see anything 
'' in what you have pubhshed inconsistent with your 
" own antecedents. Yours is a position somewhat dif- 
" ferent from that of any other States-Rights man in 
" Mississippi. You are expected to carry out your 
" creed in all its severity, and not to flinch in the least 
" from its conclusions. The time may come, and I do 
" not doubt it will, when you will find your advantage 
" in it ; lor when the States-Rights party is formed 
" again (and who can tell how soon it may be reorgan- 
" ized ?) it will naturally turn at once to you, who have 
"stood, and stand now, like old Torquil in the romance 
" of Pcott, all alone, battered, but not beaten, while 
" every living soul has fallen around you." 

Mr. Yancey was of that class, who as bold as 
Quitman, were as cautious as Wilkinson. He well knew 
that the Compromise could not be depended upon as a 
settlement of the slavery question. His own resolu- 
tions, rejected in 1848, denying the power of the people 
of a territory to drive out slavery before the adoption 
of a constitution for State government, would renew 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 337 

the strife again whenever presented in a National Con- 
vention or in Congress. The question whether the 
Compromise of 1850 had not overthrown that of 1820 
and opened up all the territories to Slavery, was another 
entering wedge which at any time could be driven to 
the heart of the Union and rend it in twain. The 
success of -the Democratic party would give the South 
the control of it. Let him once become the power 
behind the throne, and he would show himself greater 
than the throne ! Let the deluded people North and 
South accept the Compromise as a finality, there were 
a hundred ways of renewing the agitation, and at the 
same time protesting that the Compromise justified it ! 
There was no estoppel in politics. The States-Rights 
men were determined that the agitation should be 
renewed, and they knew very well that the Free Soil 
party were intent upon something more radical than 
building a platform under the end of a rainbow and 
attempting to fasten it to the sky with a spike, f 

At the Presidential election in November, the vote 
of Alabama was for Pierce, 26,881 ; for Scott, 15,038 ; 
for Troup, 2,174. The vote for Polk in 1847, had 
been 37,740, and for Cass in 1848, 31,363. Not less 
than 15,000 Democrats failed to vote for Pierce, and 
not less than 15,000 Whigs failed to vote for Scott. 
Here was a mass of thirty thousand reflecting men who 
had been driven from the Whig party by the agitation 
of the Abolitionists, or led away from the Democrats 
by the agitation of the States-Rights party. This 
formidable array of malcontents were ready for an 
advance movement. 



CH.A.PTER XIII. 



The Kiinsas-Nebraska Bill — Prqmring for BaitJe Over 
the Outpost — Sharpe Bijieii — Emigrant Societies — Rise 
of the Amtrican Party — Fillmore and Buchanan in the 
Southwest — Political Elements of the Elections of 1856, 
Etc, Etc. 



" At the coming election I cannot doubt that the free states * * will 
take possession of this government, res^ore to the Constitution the pro- 
portions of power established by Washington, reinstate in full force that 
barrier against the extension of slavery ca'led the Missouri Compromise, 
make Kansas a free St4te, and put an end forever to the addition of any 
more slave States to this Uuior— duties to be fuliHlnd at any hazard— even 
to the dissolution of the Union toeZ/'. "— [ Josi AH Qdincby, Sk., June 5, 1856.] 

" Your estate is gracious that keeps you out of hearing of our politics. 
Anything more low, obscene, purulent, the manifold bearings of history 
have not east up. We shall come to the worship of oaions, cats and 
things vermiculate. • Renown and grace are dead.' 'There is nothing 
serious in mortality.' If any wiser saw or instance ancient or modern 
occurred to me to express the enormous, impossible inanity of American 
things, I stxould utter it,"-r[RxJFUS Choate, 1855,] 



When the House Territorial Committee reported in 
1853, a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, no 
question was raised as to the Missouri Compromise 
having been repealed by the compromise of 1850. 
The bill was adopted by a vote of 98 to 43. It was 
silent as to slavery ; the whole territory, including what 
was afterwards Kansas, lying north of 36 deg. 30 min- 
Those who voted for it were alike Democrats, Whi^s, 
and Free Soilers. This bill was reported back to the 
Senate by Mr. Douglas, Chairman of the Senate Ter- 
ritorial Committee, without amendment, on the last 
day of the session, March 3, 1853. The debate upon 



340 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

it barely alluded to the question of slavery. It was 
laid upon the table because of objections to the manner 
in which it dealt with the Indians. A year later Mr. 
Douglas, against the remonstrance of President Pierce, 
it is said, and apparently looking to the Presidential 
succession by means of the Southern vote, brought 
forward an amendment to a bill introduced by a Sena- 
tor from Iowa — to organize the Territory of Kansas, 
and which, like the preceding Nebraska bill, was silent 
as to slavery — declaring that " when admitted as a State 
" or States, the said Territory, or any portion of the 
" same, shall be received into the Union with or without 
" slavery, as their Constitution may provide at the 
" time of their admission." This amendment, referring 
in express terms to the Missouri Compromise, declared 
that, being inconsistent with the principles of non- 
intervention laid down by the compromise of 1850, it 
was inoperative and void. From that day began the 
renewed slavery agitation which was not to rest until 
the Continent was drenched in blood. 

The Free Sellers, who had been quiet since the elec- 
tion of President Pierce in 1852, now rejoiced to find 
food upon which to strengthen their fortunes. The 
amendment of Mr. Douglas was denounced by Sumner, 
Seward and Chase in unmeasu^-ed terms. The 
sanctity of the Missouri Compromise (never voted for 
by the Free Sellers, and always rejected by them 
whenever advanced by the South), was held up to the 
North as violated by slave propagandists. Resolutions 
against the passage of the bill were forwarded to 
Congress by New York and Massachusetts. Memorials 
llowed in against it from every portion of the North, 
East and West. Three thousand and fifty New 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONPEDERACY. 341 

England ministers, in a petition, protested against it. 
Mrs. Stowe and eleven hundred women of Andover, 
Mass., joined the memorialists, who were now stirring 
up the worst blood of the people. The anti-slavery 
sentiment of the North had been intensified during the 
past year by the unprecedented circulation of Mrs. 
Stowe's novel against slavery. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " 
had drawn tears from the eyes of hundreds of thousands, 
and given birth to a horror against slavery in the 
Northern mind which all the politicians could never 
have created or allayed. Of that remarkable work, 
which did more than all else to array the North and 
South in compact masses against each other, 400,000 
copies were sold in the United States. One edition 
was pubhshed in the German language and circulated 
among the Germans of the West. Over 500,000 
were sold in England. It was translated into every 
language of Europe, and into several of those of Asia, 
including Arabic and Armenian. In many of these 
languages, as in the German, French, Italian^ Welsh, 
Wallachian, and Russian, there were from two to 
twelve different translations. 

The Whigs of the South could not understand why 
Douglas should renew the slavery agitation by his 
inauspicious amendment. When Texas was about to 
be annexed, Mr. Alex. H. Stephens had well expressed 
their sentiments when he said of slavery : " I have no 
" wish to see it extended to other countries ; and if 
" the annexation of Texas were for the sole purpose of 
* extending slavery where it does not now, and would 
" not otherwise exist, I would oppose it " — and when 
at a later day he had said of the measures of ] 850 : 
" Whatever abstract rights of extension and expansion 



342 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" we may have secured in the settlement of that policy, 
" you may not expect to see many of the territories 
" come into the Union as slave States unless we have 
" an increase of African stock. The law of population 
" will prevent. We have not the people." More than 
half of the ^'^-^higsof Alabama had refused to vote for. 
Gen. Scott because they believed his administration 
would not abide by the Compromises as a final settle- 
ment. A large body of them had, since the adoption 
of the Pierce platform, given in their adhesion to the 
Democracy, in the vain hope that the policy of th*. new 
administration would be to let the question of slavery 
alone. 

If the citizen had a right to carry his slave to any 
territory north of 36 deg. 30 min.., why not let the 
courts, they asked, decide the question ? Why incor- 
porate a declaration as to liis power to do so in an Act 
of Congress — especially when there was little or no 
probability that any citizen would thus defy the laws 
of nature and the dictates of prudence ? Whenever 
Kansas should apply, with a constitution recognizing 
slavery, it would be time enough for Congress to 
express their opinion ; but there was no more necessity 
nor occasion to declare in advance of .the fact that she 
should be received as a State recognizing slaves as 
property, than to declare that she should be received 
with a constitution recognizing property in buffaloes 
or saw-mills. It was a mere trick of politicians to 
pander to the sentiments of States-Rights men who 
controlled the Democratic party South. Grant the 
abstract principle to be true, it was equally true when 
the first compromise was adopted. If we were to fall 
back on abstract principle, why had not the Southern 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERAOY. 343 

man a right to have his property protected in a North- 
ern State as well as in a Territory ? But while the 
Southern WfflG» were preparing to organize themselves 
anew in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the 
tornado from the anti-slavery party, now forming itself 
into the Republican party, swept down from the North 
with its whirlwind of angry passion, its derisive and 
abusive epithets, its threats of violence and disunion, 
Hnd its actual nullification and obstruction of law. 

HiLLiARD, Watts and other Whig leaders had already 
announced themselves against the policy of the repeal 
of the Missouri fine But what mortal could brook the 
assaults which New England hurled at all the South 
indiscriminately, and live ? Before the passage of the 
bill, an event occurred which silenced any protest 
which the Southern Whigs might have been disposed to 
make, and which drove them away from all considera- 
tion of compromises to an assertion of constitutional 
principle. Previous to the passage of the Compromises 
they had held that the Southern citizen had a right to 
carry his slave property to a common territory, as the 
citizen of Georgia had carried his slaves to Alabama 
and Mississippi. The opposition of the Free toilers to 
the Missouri Compromise, so repeatedly expressed ; 
their constant demand for a Congressional Act forbid- 
ding slavery in the Territories ; their Personal Liberty 
Laws, designed to nullify the act for the rendition of 
fugitive slaves — all tended to drive the Whigs, in 
common with other slaveholders, to the further position 
that Congress should not by its agent, the TeiTitorial 
Legislature, do that indirectly which it could not do 
directly. The Missouri Une being removed by the 
common consent of the Free Soil North and the States- 



344 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Rights South, nothing was left for the Southern Whigs 
except to adhere to the principle adopted by Mr. Clay 
and his compeers in 1850 for the gc^vernment of New 
Mexico. 

The event which destroyed any effort at a restora- 
tion of the Compromise of 1820, and drove the 
Southern Whigs to a clear enunciation of abstract 
rights, was the passage by the Legislature of Massa- 
chusetts of an Act incorporating " The Massachusetts 
" Emigrant Aid Company." The incorporators were 
leading Free Soil politicians. Their capital stock was 
to be five millions of dollars. The men who directed 
the company, and the large amount of money to be ex- 
pended, proved to the South that it was a scheme to 
acquire political control of the new Territory — to 
interfere with the natural laws of immigration, and to 
thrust out the property of legitimate Southern emi- 
grants by seizing and misusing the powers of the Terri- 
torial Legislature. This company was followed by 
another with a similar capital of five millions, and 
styled " Emigrant Aid Society." An Association of 
Free Soil Congressmen was at the same time secretly 
formed at Washington, under the name of the " Kansas 
" Aid Society," whose object was to send persons to 
Kansas to " prevent the introduction of slavery." 
'I'hese associations were undoubtedly violative of the 
letter of no law ; the emigration of citizens opposed to 
slavery was a legal right not to be disputed ; but to 
the Southern people it appeared a great moral wrong, 
and contrary to the peaceful spirit of Republican gjov- 
ernment, that the political control of a Territory or 
State should be secured by the use of vast sums of 
money, and the employment of vagabond mercenaries 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 345 

as against a fair and free expression of the will of resi- 
dent and permanent citizens. If such a system of 
crusade were admissable, what was to prevent a similar 
inroad of immigrants into Missouri, Kentucky, or Vir- 
ginia, and the overthrow and destruction of valuable 
property by the votes of paid persons who had no 
interest in the soil ? Ten millions of dollars could give 
sustenance for twelve months to one hundred thousand 
voters. This army of crusaders thrown fr-om Territory 
to State, and from State to State, would be so powerful 
as to carry Free Soilism wherever it might go. The 
forces sent out by the Emigrant Aid Societies were 
well armed with breech-loading rifles of approved army 
pattern — not fowling pieces for gam^, nor the ordinary 
huntsman's rifle — but short and rifled breech-loaders, 
suitable only for warfare. These rifles were often pre- 
sented by churches. The Free Soil newspapers sport- 
ingly alluded to " the Sharpe's rifle argument." 

Down to this moment a majority of Southern people 
had not entertained a thought of forcing slavery into 
Kansas. The few settlers from Missouri were more 
than outnumbered by those from Iowa. They knew 
that the South had not the white population nor the 
slaves to indulge in such a rash experiment. A large 
minority of the South were at that very time protesting 
against the removal of the Missouri Compromise. But 
when the march of a Northern army and the gleam of 
Northern arms announced that the war had begun, it 
was useless for them to talk further of conciliation and 
compromise. The largest slave-holding counties of the 
South had been invariably Whig. Their overtures to 
the North had been rejected ; their compromise of 
rights had been certainly spurned ; then property was 



340 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

now being warred against. Still they yearned for and 
expected peace and Union. Their only hope now was 
in the boldest position — in the declaration and mainte- 
nance of the abstract principle on the part of the South, 
and a solemn determination to meet force with force on 
the fields of Kansas. Opposed as they were to the 
repeal of the . issouri Compromise, now that it was 
removed, they would obey the new law and see to it 
that its principle of peaceable non-intervention should 
be carried out. It had always been their opinion that 
a law of Congress should be obeyed until it was re- 
pealed. They were for the Union, the Constitution and 
the enforcement of the laws in spirit as well as letter. 

Far different ^was the sentiment of the Free Soil 
agitators. At a public meeting held in his church in 
the interest of the " j migrant Aid Society, Rev. 
Henry Ward Beecher said that " he beheved that the 
" Sharpe rifle was truly a moral agency, and there was 
" more moral power in those instruments, so fiir as the 
" slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a 
" hundred Bibles." Such was the blasphemy of the 
Abolition Church. Mr. Lloyo Garrison said : " Mas- 
" sachusetts has already made it a penal offence to help 
" to execute a law of the Union. I want to see the 
" officers of the State brought into collision with those 
" of the Union." Such was the treason of Abolition 
legislation. Again said Mr. GAiiRisoN : " No Union 
" with slave-holders. Up with the flag of disunion, that 
" we may have a free and glorious Union of our own." 
Such was the cry and the hope of the Northern Seces- 
sion party. Said Mr. Joshua R. Giddings : " I would 
" not be understood as desiring a servile insurrection ; 
" but I say to Southern gentlemen, that there are hun- 



tHE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 347 

" dreds of thousands of honest and patriotic men who 
" will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear 
" Cometh." Such was the humanity of the Abolition 
heart. 

That, at the outset, the abrogation of the Missouri 
line was not intended to carry slavery North of it, and 
that the South entertained no hope or expectation of 
such a result, is evidenced by a speech of Mr. Yancey, 
in which he said : 

" The South had done its duty in using all its 
" exertions t«) bring Kansas into the Union ' in accord- 
*' ance with the p inciples of the Constitution.' She did 
" it knowing that the new State would be represented 
" by Free Soil Senators and Representatives. She had 
'' nobly performed her duty without counting the cost." 

It was in May, 1854, that the Free Soil party took 
up arms, by its Emigrant Aid organization, to " prevent 
" the introduction of slavery into " a territory where 
the laws of the United ."-tates had decreed that it might 
go. It was two years later that an appeal was made 
by States-Rights leaders of Alabama in behalf of emi- 
gration to Kansas. All parties now stood shoulder to 
shoulder against the armed invasion of that territory 
by New England. Mr. Yancey was appointed to 
receive contributions. Jefferson Buford, a lawyer of 
respectability and social standing, and a member of 
the Southern Rights Association of Eufaula, proceeded 
to organize a company of emigrants. 

During the fir.-t week in April, 1856, a body of 
emigrants under command oi Buford, to the number of 
five hundred, arrived at Montgomery on their journey 
to Kansas by way of New Orleans and the Mississippi 
Kiver. An impromptu reception of the emigrants by 



348 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

the citizens was held at Estelle Hall. An eloquent 
address was delivered by Alpheus Baker, of Barbour 
county, who had followed and animated by his soul- 
stirring addresses at all resting points since leaving 
Eufaula, this body of emigrants, to whose care was 
confided the interests of the South in the new Territory 
of Kansas. Mr. Baker's speech occupied at least one 
hour and a half in its delivery, and was listened to 
with profound attention. He dwelt upon the constant 
assaults made upon the South by the Abolitionists of 
the North, and the insidious means which they em- 
ployed to deprive Southerners of their property ; he 
took a cursory glance at the course of injustice and 
partiality which had fallen to the lot of the South. He 
considered Kansas the battle-ground on which Southern 
Rights were to be triumphantly maintained or inglori- 
ously rehnquished. He counseled no hasty or uncon- 
stitutional movements on the part of the South, but 
urged a firm, determined spirit to " commit no wrong 
" and relinquish no right." He said the South had 
borne, long and patiently, the aggressions, encroach- 
ments, and haughtiness of the I^orth, not because she 
was tremulous for the result should she meet these — 
but for the sake of Union. He now considered it meet 
and proper that the South should show her determina- 
tion to suffer persecution no longer. He called upon 
the proverbial chivalry of her sons, and appealed to 
their dearest interests to come up notv, manfully to the 
rescue, to stand by their constitutional rights, and to 
maintain in all vigor the institutions to which they 
were accustomed from their infancy. He wished to 
oppose no spirit of dictation or haughtiness to the 
North, but he wished to see the entire South united on 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 349 

the question, as to whether the South should maintain 
its rights or surrender them at the beck and call of 
rampant fanaticism. At the conclusion of his eloquent 
speech, Mr. Baker was loudly applauded. 

On Saturday, April 5, the emigrants were formed in 
hue before the Madison House on Market street, when 
Maj. Bufbrd addressed them, recommending an absti- 
nence from intoxicating drinks, and a general bearing 
such as becomes good citizens. At two o'clock p. m,, 
they marched to the Agricultural Fair Grounds, where 
an election for officers was held, and the emigiants were 
divided into companies — Maj. Buford being elected 
General of the battalion. 

' A large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of 
Montgomery was held the same night at Estelle Hall, 
to express their approval of and to aid the Kansas 
Emigration movement. Calls were made on several 
distinguished gentlemen to address the meeting. Major 
Buford delivered a dignified and stirring appeal, 
explaining the patriotic motives which had induced him 
to ■ engage in the undertaking. His address was 
received with great expressions of applause from the 
assembly. He expressly declared that the intention of 
the emigrating party under his charge was peaceably to 
settle Kansas with true-hearted Southern men ; that 
they intended no acts of lawlessness, or force, or fraud ; 
but in the event of an interference with their rights by 
the hired minions of Northern Pi'eesolism and Fanati- 
cism, they would, to the last extremity, defend them- 
selves and the institutions of their choice. He said 
that Kansas was the " outpost " which should be now 
defended by the South if the South intends to preserve 
her institutions and her character. 



350 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Judge William P. Chilton said that it was well 
known that he had always been a " Union man," that 
he was still a Union man, but the crisis had arrived 
in which he felt it his duty not to falter, but to maintain 
strictly every right of the South, in the Union if 
possible ; if not, then out of the Union ! He said that the 
great fault of the South heretofore had been in compro- 
mising their rights for the sake of peace and harmony. 
Such compromises had only urged the North to new 
acts of aggression ; henceforth he deemed it the duty 
of the Southern States to suffer no infringement of their 
guaranteed privileges, but to contend to the last 
extremity for a full and complete equality with their 
Northern sister States. 

The following resolutions were read by the Secretary 
and unanimously adopted by the meeting : 

" Resolved, That our grateful thanks are tendered 
" to the noble band of emigrants who have so promptly 
" responded to the call made upon them to march forth 
" and throw themselves in the breach in defence of 
" Southern Rights and the constitutional privileges of 
"• the South, and though we hope their mission may be 
" a peaceful one, and not involve them in an appeal to 
" arms, yet should Abolition fanaticism force such an 
" issue, we wish them to consider themselves as but 
" the vanguard of the mighty hosts of their brethren of 
" the South who are ready to march to their relief and 
" stand with them in the struggle. 

" Resolved, That we are satisfied their conduct will 
" be governed by a strict observance of all the consti- 
" tutional laws of the Federal Government, and that we 
" deem it unnecessary to exhort them to oppo.se, by 
<' all the means placed in their hands by the God who 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 351 

" made them, the least aggression on then* rights and 
" privileges by the base hirelings of Northern fanat- 
" icism. 

" Resolved, That the South has made sacrifices and 
" compromises to promote the harmony, peace, and 
" union of these States on divers occasions, and all such 
" efforts have only tended to encourage our ad»versa- 
" ries in their lawless and fanatical proceedings, and to 
" urge them on to repeated outrages against our char- 
" acter and standing as equals in the confederacy ; 
" therefore, henceforth let there be inscribed on our 
"■ banners, ' No Compromise of our Rights,' but a full, 
" ample and entire equality with all our sister States, 
" even at the hazard of Disunion and War ! " 

On Sunday the entire battaUon of Emigrants re- 
paired to the Baptist Church, where they listened to 
an eloquent sermon from the pastor of that congrega- 
tion, Rev. Dr. I. T. Tichenor. At the conclusion of 
the services the Reverend gentleman remarked that, 
inasmuch as several ministers at the North had been 
prominent in urging the necessity of sanctifying and 
civilizing the Territory of Kansas by the aid of Sharpe's 
rides, he hoped his congregation would aid him in pre- 
senting each of the emigrants in Maj. Buford's battalion 
with a more potent weapon, and one much better 
calculated to bring about brotherly love and christian 
charity — a Bible. The congregation acted on the 
suggestion, and an adequate collection was immediately 
t^iken up for this object. 

On Monday the battalion formed in line, and under 
the command of their officers marched to the Baptist 
Church. The entire side-galleries, and a large portion 
of the body of the Church, were occupied by the emi- 



352 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

grants, while the remaining space was filled by 
spectators, among whom were many ladies. Rev. Mr. 
Dorman, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, offered up 
a prayer, asking that the blessings of the Almighty 
might descend on Maj. Buford and his command, and 
that the enterprise in which they were engaged might 
meet with the approbation of Heaven. 

Rev. Mr. Tichenor, in behalf of his congregation, 
then presented Buford with a large-sized elegant Bible, 
bearing an appropriate inscription ; accompanying the 
presentation with an eloquent appeal to the feelings, 
patriotism, and the moral sense of the emigrants to walk 
in the paths of virtue, and to practice with assiduity 
the teachings contained in the Holy Word. He stated 
that it had been the intention of the congregation to 
present each individual of them with a copy of the 
Scriptures, but that a sufficient number of copies could 
not be found in the city. The sum sufficient to make 
the purchases had been raised, which he would confide 
to Major Buford's care, in order that he might, at some 
convenient point on his route, procure the necessary 
copies and present them to his command on behalf of 
the church. The Rev. gentleman closed by wishing 
them all life, happiness and prosperity, and hoped that 
the blessing of God would crown their endeavors to 
perpetuate the institutions of the South — which were 
fully in accordance with the law of God. 

Buford received the Bible trom the hands of the 
Rev. speaker, and, after reverently kissing it, replied on 
behalf of the emigrants that all their hopes of success 
were founded on the firm conviction that they were 
right, and that they were animated by motives of pure 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 353 

patriotism and a hearty desii'e for the welfare of the 
South and her institutions. 

Benediction was then pronounced by Rev. Mr. 
DoRMAN. and the emigrants marched to the wharf, 
where the steamer Messenger was lying to take them 
to Mobile. The crowd of spectators in attendance at 
the wharf could not have been less than five thousand 
in number, a large portion of them ladies. A band of 
colored musicians discoursed exhiliratino music. 

Arriving at the wharf they halted, and Hon. H. W. 
HiLLiARD addressed them briefly, setting forth the right 
of the Southerners, relying for protection on the Consti- 
tution of the country to enter the Territory of Kansas 
with their institutions and property, and to claim pro- 
tection therefor from the Federal Government. He 
counseled a spirit of peace and conciliation, to act on 
the defensive — and remarked that he was glad to see 
them go armed with the Word of Truth and the Con- 
stitution, rather than with Shaipe's rifles. He avowed 
his confidence in the success of their mission, and felt 
satisfied that by no act of theirs would the South have 
cause to blush for those who had taken ':!pon themselves 
the defence of her interests. Mr. Hilliard spoke from 
a cotton-bale He said it was typical of the supremacy 
of the white race. Said he : " Providence may change 
" our relations to the inferior lace, but the principle is 
•' eternal — the supremacy of the white mce." Mr. 
Alpheus Baker again spoke in his usual eloquent 
language. The bell of the steamer rang, and the expe- 
dition departed amid the huzzas of a united people, and 
to the sound of cannon booming along the bluffs. 

The iVational Whig party having been broken to 
pieces by the incessant agitation of the question of 



354 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

slavery by its Northern wing, the conservative portion of 
it, North and South, and a portion of the Democratic 
party, which was wearied with the " forcing issue " 
poUcy of the States-Rights men who controlled the 
Pierce administration, now united under cover of 
secrecy in an organization which they hoped would 
issue from its cloak, fully panoplied, and grapple suc- 
cessfully with the grave problems of the day. Mr. 
John M. Clayton, who had been Secretary of State 
under President Taylor, had announced in 1854 that 
this " Know Nothing " party would refuse " to test 
" the suitableness of any man for public office by the 
" question whether he is for or against the mere exten- 
'' sion of slavery in some territory of the United States." 
This was satisfactory to the South, It was acquies- 
cence in the principle of non-intervention in the 
territories. In June, 1855, the party, met in National 
Council at Philadelphia, and laid down its platform. 
Forthwith the Whigs of the L^outh gave in their adhesion 
to the organization, which now assumed the name 
" American Party." In Alabama the old Whig leaders, 
Bii]B, HiLLiARD, Chilton, Watts, Judge, Clanton, Jemi- 
soN, White, Langdon, and Shortridge arrayed 
themselves under the new banner. It may be asked 
why these citizens were not content to abide by the 
Democratic party upon their platform of 1852 ? They 
recognized the justice of the principles of the States- 
Rights men ; why not join their organization ? Why 
maintain separate organizations with parallel principles ? 
The answer may be found in the June, 1856, platform 
of the National American Party : 

1. The Southern Whigs, while admitting the princi- 
ples of the Kansas Bill, charged the Democrats, in the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 355 

language of the first American resolution, with " having 
" elevated sectional hostility into a positive element of 
" political power and brought our institutions into 
" peril." For this reason they could not repose confi- 
dence in a party whose policy, under the leadership of 
Quitman, Rhett, Davis, and Yancey, was to follow Mr. 
Calhoun and to force the issue on the North. 

2. The American party declared that it would abide 
by and maintain the existing laws upon the subject of 
slavery as a final and conclusive settlement of that 
subject. The Kansas Bill was then a law. It also 
declared that Congress ought not to legislate upon the 
subject of slavery witliin a territory of the United 
States. 

3. The doctrine that the naturalization laws should 
be more strict, and that foreigners should not be 
allowed to vote until naturalized, would curtail the Free 
Soil vote and curb in the West the growing power of a 
class of citizens whose language, ideas, and habits were 
foreign to our own. The Whigs of the South were 
ready to seize upon this as a policy advantageous to 
the South, which had not a handful of foreign-born 
citizens. 

4. So far as opposition to the Roman Catholic 
Church entered into the party, the Southern Whigs 
everywhere rejected it, as pandering to the lowest 
prejudices of bigotry and unworthy of the dignity of a 
true republican, with whom liberty of conscience should 
be as sacred as life itself But in those large cities of 
the North wherever the Romish Church interfered 
with secular affairs, they held that it was a proper 
subject for political opposition. 

The Alabama State Council of Americans met at 



356 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Montgomery, Nov. 13, 1855. The rapid growth 
throuohout the country, and wonderful success in many 
of the States, of their new party, as also the conserv- 
ative platform laid down by the National Council in 
June had delighted the more moderate people of the 
South, 'fhey saw in the American party a worthy 
successor of the Whig. But while the Grand Council 
of Alabama was rejoicing over a new national party 
which appeared to be actually desirous of quieting the 
slavery agitation, the grand councils of many of the 
Northern States were also in session resolving that the 
iMissouri Compromise should be restored, and that 
unless it were restored Congress should refuse to admit 
into the Union any State above that line which might 
apply for admission. The Free Soil element had gained 
access to the American party North, and was now 
ready to force the party to apply the Wilmot Proviso 
to Kansas and Nebraska. To the Southern Whigs 
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was one thing. 
Its restoration at the mouth of Sharpe rifles was quite 
another thing. Therefore it was that the Alabama 
American Convention resolved that the people of all 
the States have an equal right to enter and occupy 
any territory with their property, and that they are 
protected in the enjoyment of their property there by 
the Constitution of the Uuited States, until such time 
as the people may frame a constitution preparatory to 
admission as a State. This was the principle set out 
by the resolutions of Mr. Yancey adopted by the 
Democratic Convention of Alabama in 1848, and 
rejected by the National Democratic Convention of 
that year. By breaking down the barrier of the Com- 
promises which separated them, Mr. Yancey now saw 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 35? 

the Democratic party and his old opponents of the 
Whig party occupying the same intrenchment, with 
ranks almost touching. The American party North 
had not as yet fully indicated that it was being con- 
trolled by the Free Sellers, when the Americans of 
Alabama once more met in convention, Feb. 4th, '56, 
and re-endorsed the position assumed by their Grand 
Council in November. 

Henry C. Jones, of Frankhn county, was President 
of this Convention. Among its delegates were Bibb, 
Clanton, Belser, Parsons, \^^hite, Jemison, Jos. W. 
Taylor, J. J. Hooper, Benj. Gardner, W. A. Ashley, 
R. F. Inge, W. B H. Howard. Jerome Clanton, E. A. 
Powell, and other distinguished members of the old 
Whig party, besides a number of those who had here- 
tofore acted with the Democratic party. The over- 
throw of the American party in Virginia by the vigor- 
ous canvass of Henry A. Wise, had alarmed the 
greater portion of the Democrats who had entered the 
Know Nothing lodge^, and they had beat a hasty 
retreat; but quite y number still remained, and it 
appeared quite probable that the Americans might 
carry the State of Alabama. The Convention an- 
nounced the following principles : 

1. That the people of all the States have a constitu- 
tional right to enter and occupy any of the territories, 
as well with their slaves as with any other species of 
property, and are protected in the enjoyment of the 
same by the Constitution and the flag of the country ; 
and that neither Congress nor a territorial Legislature 
can legislate slavery into or out of a territory, but 
must protect the citizens in the enjoyment of their 
property of whatever description. 



358 THE CKADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

2. That the power to exclude slavery from a terri- 
tory resides only in a convention of the people when 
assembled under an Act of Congress to frame a consti- 
tution preparatory to admission as a State. 

o. That the opposite doctrine of squatter sovereignty 
is repudiated. 

4. That neither Congress nor a Territorial Legisla- 
ture can enable unnaturahzed foreigners to vote within 
a territory ; and that no ioreign-born resident should 
vote within a State unless legally naturalized. 

Addi'essing the Convention in support of these 
principles, Mr. Hilliard argued that the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill authorized the squatters in a territory to 
exclude slave property whenever they chose to do so, 
and that this doctrine of squatter sovereignty was 
worse than the Wilmot Proviso. By the exercise of 
the Wilmot Proviso the people would know at the 
outset that they could not remove with their slaves to 
a tenitory, but by being subjected to squatter sover- 
eignty the tenure of their property would be left to the 
accidents of the hour, and to the whims of poHtical 
hirehngs who might be sent to the territory, not as 
actual residents and permanent citizens, but to accom- 
plish the success of a certain political party. He 
charged the Kansas-Nebraska Act with containing this 
monstrous principle, so unworthy of dignified govern- 
ment, and the Democratic party with ha\ing accepted 
it. It was intended, he said, to please both sections ; 
the South, because it removed the Missouri hue and 
enabled the slave-holder to take his slave to any of the 
territories ; the North, because the Free Soil settlers, 
withoutjgimpediment, could first rush in and seize the 
territorial government. The fact that the Democrats 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERACY. 359 

of Alabama had resolved that they were opposed to 
squatter sovereignty, was immaterial. They had so 
resolved in 1848, and their resolutions being rejected 
by the National Convention, they hal acquiesced, 
accepted Mr. Cass and repudiated Mr. Yancey. Not- 
withstanding their late State Convention had reaffirmed 
Mr. Yancey's resolutions of 1848, it would be seen that 
the Democratic party would nominate Mr. Buchanan, 
whom Mr. Yancey then denounced, and that Mr. Bu- 
chanan would substantially endorse the doctrine of Mr. 
Douglas. The American party deplored the removal 
of the Missouri line as unnecessary and provocative of 
renewed sectional agitation ; but being removed, noth- 
ing was left except to plant themselves upon the clear 
abstract right of holding slaves as other property until 
the Territory, when admitted as a State, should pro- 
hibit it. This, he felt satisfied, was sound constitutional 
law, and would be so held by the Supreme Court of the 
United States in the case then pending before it. 

The State American Convention had sent delegates 
to a National American Convention which was to 
convene at Philadelphia Feb. 22. It was the hope of 
the Southern members of that party that the National 
Convention to nominate for the Presidency would be 
postponed to July. But the Northern members 
insisted upon an earlier day. The Southern States had 
but few representatives present, and the controlling 
sentiment was for free soil. The Convention repudiated 
the policy of the preceding Convention of June, took 
the ground of the newly-organized Republican party by 
declaring opposition to the reckless and unwise policy 
of the existing administration, and announced a free 
and open discussion of the question of slavery. So 



360 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

plain was the meaning of their new platform, that a 
despatch was forwarded to a " Republican " Conven- 
tion, sitting at Pittsburg, in this language : 

" The American party is no longer united. Raise 
" the Republican banner. Let there be no hirtber 
" extension of slavery. The Americans are with you." 

Alexander White and Geo. D. hnoRTRiDGB, two of 
the delegates who had been appointed from Alabama, 
published a letter protesting that the Philadelphia Con- 
vention was not a representative body, that it had been 
assembled in unseemly haste and for the purpose of 
excluding the South ; that it had planted itself on 
sectional gi'ound and abandoned the conservative 
position ot the former convention. There was a moral 
sublimity in the June platform ; there was debasement 
lor the South in that of February. Can we follow 
them ? asked the letter. The Alabama party in their 
resolutions had declared that they would not support 
for the Presidency any one who would not publicly avow 
the correctness of their views. It was now time for the 
South to take her destiny in her own hands. Messrs. 
White and Shortridge could not follow men or a party 
who would not avow the justice and maintain the 
principles of the Alabama American plattbrm. Their 
only hope was that the party would hold a National 
Conyention in July and return to the sound and consti- 
tutional position of the National Council of 1855. 

Notwithstanding the fusion of the Free Sellers of the 
American party North with the Republican party, there 
was still a large body of conservative citizens at the 
North who were anxious for a cessation of sectional 
controversy. These, added to the anti-administration 
vote of the South, constituted one-lburth of the entire 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 361 

popular vote of the Union. It was hoped and believed 
that this body of citizens, always devoted to the Union, 
always anxious and willing to compromise questions 
which involved no practical interest, always moderate 
and conservative in action and expression, would form 
a nucleus around which would concentrate a dominant 
national party. These men m6t at Baltimore in July. 
It was a large Hsseiiiblage, representing all parts of the 
Union and composed of persons of the highest intellect- 
ual attainments and moral worth. With great 
unanimity they nominated Mr. Fillmore for the 
Presidency. 

In August, 1 855, the Gubernatorial election in Ala- 
bama had shown 30,639 votes for Judge Shortridge, 
the American candidate tor Governor, and 42,238 for 
Winston, his Democratic opponent. The vote for 
Shortridge was twice that for Scott in 1851. The 
vote for Winston was but four thousand more than was 
cast for Polk eleven years befoi'e. The American vote 
ibr Shortridge was the largest opposition vote that had 
been cast in the State of Alabama. It appeared from 
this that the dissolution of the Whig party in 1852 had 
not discouraged nor disheartened the conservatives of 
the South. They were more compact than ever 
against the agitation policy of Mr. Yancey and the 
States-Rights party. Had the American party 
remained a national one, abided by the platform of 
June, 1855, and had not its Northern wing thrown 
itself into the arms of the Free Sellers in February, "56, 
it is probable that the vote between Mr. Buchanan and 
Mr. Fillmore in Alabama would have been as closelv 
contested as that between Gen. Cass and Gen. Taylor. 

Notwithstanding the cloud that was cast over the 



362 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

party South by the action of the Philadelphia Con- 
vention of February, the Alabama Americans resolved 
to accept Mr. Fillmore upon the strength of his ad- 
ministration and the principle involved in the Compro- 
mise of 1850, as announced in the resolutions of the 
several Alabama American Conventions. 

Mr. Yancey, at the Buchanan ratification meeting 
held at Montgomery, had said that every generous and 
just- minded man present would admit that the Demo- 
crats of Alabama had a right to congratulate themselves 
on the complete justification of the resolutions proposed 
by him and adopted by the State Convention of 1848. 
The striking truth then announced was so palpably 
true as to admit of no dispute. It was a matter which 
had so forced itself on the attention of Southern Whigs 
as to compel such men as Toombs and Stephens, of 
Ga., Benjamin, of La., Caruthers, of Mo., Preston, of 
Ky., and the Walkers, Pattons, Pughs, and hosts of 
other true and gallant men of Alabama and elsewhere, 
to dissever their old party associations in obedience to 
the impulses of patriotic duty, and ally themselves with 
the Democracy as the only National party possessing 
the power and the will to protect the South and assure 
the continuance of the Union upon a constitutional 
basis. There can be no question but that Mr. Yancey 
had consistently adhered to the Calhoun resolutions of 
1848, and that in the spirit of Calhoun, he had steadily 
forced upon the Democratic party the doctrine of non- 
intervention by a territorial legislature with the institu- 
tion of slavery. But a large portion of the Democratic 
party denied that Mr. Yancey's construction of the 
Cincinnati non-intervention resolution was correct. 
Recognizing the diil'erence of opinion which existed as 



THE CRADLE OF TilE CONFEDERACY. 363 

to the duty and powers of a territorial government, Mr. 
Buchanan, in his letter accepting the nomination for 
the Presidency, said " that the' people of a territory, 
like those of a State, shall decide for themselves " as to 
the existence of slavery. This letter was doubtless 
intended to meet the demands of both sections. At 
the North it was construed to mean that the people of 
a territory might legislate as to property like those of 
a State. By the Southern Democracy it was construed 
to mean that the people of a territory could decree 
what was to be property in the same manner the 
people of a State could make such decree, namely : by 
a properly assembled convention. 

Seizing this expression of Mr. Buchanan, the Ameri- 
can speakers in Alabama contended that Mr. Yancey's 
construction was wrong, and that the Northern De- 
mocracy were intent upon leaving to the will of the 
first squatters of a territory the exclusion of Southern 
property. If, said they, this is the conclusion of the 
whole matter, why was the Missouri Une disturbed, and 
why was sectional agitation once more renewed ? They 
maintained that the American resolutions of the 
National Council of June, 1855, and the Alabama reso- 
lutions of the February following, expressed the true 
position of the American party. They held that, as 
between the Free Soil Whig party of the North, and 
the States-Rights Secession party of the South, the 
American party stood, the only national one which could 
give peace to the country and perpetuity to the Union. 
The American party had decided to abide by the 
existing laws. It had declared that Congress could 
not exclude a State from admission to the Union 
because of the existence of slavery. It is true the 



1364 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

National Council had pretermitted any expression of 
opinion as to the power of Congress to establish or pro- 
hibit slavery in any 'territory, but they had declared 
that Congress ought not to legislate upon that subject. 
Thus while Mr. Yancey and his friends denied the 
power of Congress, the Americans held that the higher 
motive of moral obligation should induce Congress to 
refrain from all attempts to exercise the power. The 
constitutional obligation might be in doubt, as thought 
one wing of the Democracy ; but with the Americans 
there was no doubt as to the moral obligation. 

The political elements which entered into the Presi- 
dential contest, were as follows : 

1. The Republican party, solid and compact, in favor 
of the power and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery 
in the Territories. This party lacked only the vote of 
Pennsylvania to carry Fremont into the Presidency. 

2. The Northern Democracy, giving a squatter sov- 
ereignty construction to Mr. Buchanan's letter of 
acceptance, just as Mr. Yancey, in 1848, had given a 
similar construction to his Berk's county letter. This 
element, while unable to give an electoral vote in pro- 
portion to its numbers, constituted two-thirds of the 
entire Democratic [)opulation. 

3. The Southern Democracy, now controlled by the 
successors of Mr. y alhoun, and constiuing the accept- 
ance of Mr. Buchanan and the Cincinnati platform to 
mean non-intervention both by Congress and its agent, 
the territorial legislature. This element, while consti- 
tutiog but one-third of the Democratic popular 
strength, was able to control four-fifths of the probable 
Democratic electoral votes. 

4. The American party, which, in the North, evaded 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 365 

the question of slavery, and which, in the South was 
divided between those who, while not denying the 
power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories, 
contended that the existing legislation on the subject 
should be abided by as a final settlement, and those 
who denied such a power to Congress and insisted on 
congressional protection to slaves until the territory be- 
canie a State. Both sections of the party. South, agreed 
that the pre.sent laws should be carried out, and that 
the constitutionality of the question should be left to 
the decision of the Supreme Court. This party at the 
South was able to poll against the Democracy more 
than one hundred thousand more votes than were cast 
for Gen. Scott, and nearly fifty thousand more than 
were cast for Gen. Taylor. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



The Bred Scott Deeifiion — Condition of Parties in 1858 
— The Irrepressible Conflict — The John Brown Raid 
— Leagues of United Southerners — The Southern 
Commercial Convention — Bebate bet\veen Yancey and 
Pryor — Precipitating the Cotton States into Revolu- 
tion, &C.f &c. 



" Free labor and slave labor, these antagonistic systems, are con- 
tinually coming into close contact, and collision results. Shall I tell 
yon what this collision means? They who think it is accidental, un- 
necessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore 
ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict 
between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the 
United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a 
slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor nation." 

W. H. Sewaed, in 1858. 

" Our own banner is inscribed ; ' No co-operation with slave-hold- 
ers in politics: no fellowship with them in religion: no affiliation 
with them in society : no recognition of pro-slavery men, except as 
ruflSans, outlaws and criminals.' " Impending Crisis. 

" As long as the blood-stained Union exists, there is but little hope 
for the slave." 

W. L. Garkison, at New York, 1857. 



At the time when the Whigs of Alabama in their 
support of Mr. Fillmore, had asserted the risjht of the 
people of any State to remove to and hold within a 
territory any species of property, subject to the decis- 
ion of the people of the territory, through a constitu- 
tion framed as preliminary to their admittance as a 
State, the Supreme Court of the United States had 
pending before them a case (Dred Scott vs. Sandford, 
19 Howard's Reports, p. 393,) involving all the con- 
tested questions in regard to slavery. Two days after 



368 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Mr. Buchanan's inauguration, a decision was announced 
upon this case which affirmed the correctness of the 
Alabama American platform. It established the prop- 
osition that the Federal Grovernment could not interfere 
with the possession of slave property in a slave terri- 
tory, and could not authorize the local government to 
do so, and that it was the duty of the Government to 
protect such property there. The Republican party 
denied the binding force of this decision. Although 
compose*! principally of Northern Whigs who applaud- 
ed Mr. Webster when he named the Supreme ( 'ourt as 
the arbiter in disputes concerning constructions of the 
Constitution, they now found it convenient to reject 
that arbitration. They, together with the adherents of 
Mr. Douglas, held that the Court could pass simply 
upon each case as it came before them, and could not 
lay down a general principle which would bind the 
political department of the Government. The Douglas 
Democracy in thus rejecting the umpirage of the 
Supreme Court were undoubtedly in accord with the 
views of Hayne, Van Buren, Calhoun and other lea- 
ders of the Democratic party of the preceding genera- 
tion, l^he Buchanan Democracy could not, with con- 
sistency, claim the Dred 8cott decision as strengthen- 
ing their case. They had, theretofore, uniformly declared 
that the dignity of the States would not permit the 
decision of constitutional questions to rest with a Fed- 
eral Court. For the purpose of advancing their party 
interests, the Northern Whigs and Southern Democrats, 
the extreme Free Soilers and the extreme States-Rights 
men, at this point reversed their positions. The party 
that had once spurned the idea of listening to the 
Supreme Court upon political questions, now emblazoo- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 369 

ed the Dred Scott decision upon its flag, and the party 
which had invariably appealed to the Court in the 
days of Marshall now rejected it with loathing and 
hate in the days of Yancey. The Whig party of the 
South alone maintained its ancient land-marks. Inher- 
iting the traditions of 1830 and of 1840, it still 
adhered to the faith of Webster and Clay, and bowed 
to the decision of the Court. They still held that the 
Constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, 
were the supreme laws of the land, and that the 
Supreme Court could alone decide whether a law was 
made in pursuance to the Constitution. 

All of the Compromises of the Constitution having 
been rejected, and the Supreme Tribunal having now 
announced its decision upon the grave question of the 
day, the Whigs of Alabama had no further point of 
dispute with their adversaries upon matters growing out 
of slavery. They still, however, held themselves in 
solid array against the Democracy upon the ground 
that the Territorial question was an impracticable one, 
upon which the continuance of the Union should not 
be staked, and that the States-Rights leaders who now 
held unbounded sway in the Democratic ranks, had 
come to the conclusion that secession should be resorted 
to without awaiting any further overt act than the 
Conference Bill, under which Kansas was virtually 
refused admittance with her Lecompton Constitution., 
So determined was this array that in the election for 
Congressman in the Montgomery District, as late as 
November, 1858, Mr. Judge, who has been already 
alluded to as a prominent leader of the Whigs, failed of 
an election by only two hundred and fourteen votes in 
a poll of more than thirteen thousand. Keferring to 



370 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

this election, it is worthy of note that the large slave- 
holding counties of the District gave majorities for Mr. 
Judge, notwithstanding the newspapers charged hiin 
with want of fealty to the institution of slavery in voting 
at the Nashville Convention to accept the Compromise 
of 1850, and in publishing the card relative to the 
right of secession, to which reference has already been 
made in a preceding chapter. The charge of disloyalty 
to the South thus preferred against Mr. Judge by the 
Montgomery Advertise?' and other Democratic newspa- 
pers, did not prevent the people from casting for him 
G,GGG votes, against 6,880 votes for Mr. Clopton, his 
competitor. The counties most largely interested in 
slavery, and possibly in the extension of slavery to 
Kansas and Nebraska, \'oted for Mr. Judge. He was 
defeated by the votes of those counties which were the 
least interested in that subject. Thus firm and unbro- 
ken was the front maintained against the Democratic 
})arty around the home of Yancey and the cradle of the 
Confederacy. Such was the conflict, not of principle, 
but of sentiment and temper, in one of the largest 
slave-holding Districts of the South, inhabited by a 
population wealthy, high-spirited, and intelhgent — a 
conQict which would, by nicely balancing the power of 
the disputants, have preserved the Union for an indefi- 
nite period — when suddenly occurred a series of events 
which paralyzed the labors of men like Watts, Judge, 
Langdon, and Clanton, and struck the South with such 
alarm and indignation as to add intensity to the secession 
movement which had now once more assumed definite 
shape. 

These events were : 1. The announcement by Senator 
Seward, the leader of the Jlepublican party, that an 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 371 

irrepressible conflict existed between the North and 
South, a conflict which must eventuaUy give free labor 
to the South ; 2. The endorsement by Mr. Greeley, 
Mr. Seward, and all the Republican leaders, of a book 
published by a charlatan, entitled " Impending Crisis," 
which advised the opponents of slavery " to land military 
" forces in the Southern States who shaU raise the 
" standard of freedom and call the slaves to it," and to 
" teach the slaves to burn their masters' buildings, to 
" kill their cattle and hogs, to conceal and destroy 
" farming utensils, to abandon lal}or in seed-time and 
" harvest and let the crops perish "; 3. The invasion 
of Virginia and the cmeute at Harper's Ferry by John 
Brown and his Abolition force. 

Cotemporaneously with these events, which did more 
to fire the Southern heart than all the speeches of 
States-Rights leaders, was the meeting of the Southern 
Commercial Convention at Montgomery, and the organ- 
ization of Leagues of united Southerners to take the 
place of the old States-Rights Associations. 

A Southern Commercial Convention held at Knox- 
ville, in August, 1857, had appointed a committee, of 
which L. W. Spratt, of S. C, was chairman, to prepare 
business for the next meeting, covering these questions : 
1 . The African slave trade ; 2. The poUtical relations 
of the South to the Union; and, 3. The foreign policy 
the South should advocate. 

The next meeting of the Convention was held at 
Montgomer}^, May 10, 1858. The welcoming address 
was made by Mr. Yancey on behalf of the Mayor and 
Council of Montgomery. He said : 

" I must be allowed, at least on my own behalf, to 
" welcome you, too, as but the foreshadowing of that 



372 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" far more important body, important as you evidently 
" will be, that, if injustice and wrong shall still continue 
" to rule the hour and councils of the dominant section 
" of this country, must, ere long, assemble upon 
" Southern soil, for the purpose of devising some 
" measures by which not only your industiial, but your 
" social and your political relations shall be placed upon 
" the basis of an independent sovereignty, which will 
" have within itself a unity of cUmate, a unity of soil, a 
" unity of production, and a unity of social relations ; 
" that unity which alone can be the basis of a successful 
" and permanent government." [Loud applause.] 

Among the members of the Convention were men 
whose names had been long familiar to the public, 
some of the leading intellects of the South. There were 
Calhoun and Hayne, of S. C, able representatives of 
their distinguished kinsmen who had passed away ; 
Preston and Pryor, of Va. ; Hill and Lamar, of Ga. ; 
Breckinridge and White, of La.; McRae and Dunn, 
of Miss. ; Chase and Brevard, of Fla. From Alabama 
were seen the faces of Yancey, Hilliard, Clanton, 
Cochran, Lea, Walker, Belser, Bethea, and many 
others of distinction. A. P. Calhoun, of S. C, was 
elected President. Mr. Spratt submitted to the Con- 
vention an elaborate report touching the questions sub- 
mitted at the last session of the Convention, and 
recommended the adoption of the following resolutions : 

" L That slavery is right, and that being right, there 
" can be no wrong in the natural means to its formation. 

" 2. That it is expedient and proper the Foreign 
" »:rlave Trade should be re-opened, and that this Con- 
" vention will lend its influence to any legitimate 
" measure to that end. 

" 0. That a committee, consisting of one from each 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 373 

" slave state, be appointed to consider of the means, 
" consistent with the duty and obUgations of these 
" States, for re-opening the Foreign Slave Trade, and 
" that they report their plan to the next meeting of 
" this Convention." 

Mr. Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, stated that 
although a member of the committee from whence this 
report purports to come, yet he had not seen it, nor 
had he heard any of its arguments or conclusions until 
it was read to the convention. He therefore hoped the 
convention would indulge him by giving him an oppor- 
tunity to prepare and present to the convention the 
arguments founded upon considerations of high State 
policy, of eminently high Southern pohcy, which would 
forbid this convention, which purports to represent the 
interests of the South, from embarking in so serious an 
enterprise as that of proclaiming before Christendom 
that they now intend to insist upon re-opening the 
trade in African slaves. 

Mr. Yancey, of Alabama, said he, also was a member 
of the committee from which this report comes, and 
from circumstances beyond his control, he had not seen 
it. But fi'om what he had heard of it, as it was read, 
he was free to confess that he gave it his most hearty 
concurrence. There might be some things in it to 
which he could not give his consent. 

The question recurring on the following day, Mr. 
Pryor addressed the convention at length. He dif- 
fered from the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Spratt) in his argument that the diffusion of slavery 
strengthened it. Difiusion is not strength ; but, on 
the contrary, concentration is strength. It was not the 
opinion of Thomas Jefferson that diffusing slavery 



374 THE ORADLE OP THE CONi'EDERACY. 

strengthened it. While he admired the genius and 
patriotism of Jefferson, he must, at the same time, con- 
fess, with humihation and shame, that he was the most 
intelligent adversary of slavery that the world has ever 
produced. But he offered the Missouri restriction 
because, by using his own words, "by diffiising the 
" institution of slavery you weakened it." Look at 
Missouri, where slavery is very much diffiised, and 
then at South Carolina, where it is more concentrated 
than in any other State in this Confederacy, and then 
say where the institution of slavery has the most 
strength. 

The policy advocated in this report is and ought to 
be impracticable. We are committed by the action of 
our forefathers to give the Federal Government un- 
conditional and absolute control over the African 
slave trade. The gentleman from South Carolina can- 
not expect to get the Fedeial Government to open that 
trade. No sensible man here believes that that will 
ever be done under any circumstances, for the North 
has complete control of the legislative and executive 
departments of the Government. Does the gentleman 
propose to open the trade by action of the several 
Southern States ? That would be an act of bad faith, 
for we have agreed to the Constitution of this country, 
and as long as we remain in the Union, we must 
uphold that Constitution. It is what we require of 
others, and let us, hke honorable men, do the same 
thing ourselves. 

Ajiother objection to the agitation of this subject, 
said .iiv. Pryor, is that by committing ourselves to this 
policy we sacrifice our friends at the Noi-th, and the 
National Democratic party in the North. It was that 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFiiiDERACY. 375 

Democratic party which afltectod au amelioration in the 
financial system of this Government ; which redeemed 
the country fiom the oppression of a National Bank ; 
which has extended the area of the Union by the 
acquisition of Morida, Texas, and California. His 
memories of that party appealed to his heart not rudely 
and ruthlessly to sacrifice it. There are members of 
that party in the North that he was unwilling to 
consign to irretrievable perdition and destruction by 
imposing upon them a test they cannot be expected to 
stand. He would rather, in an excess of generosity and 
magnanimity, sacrifice some of his own feelings and 
rights than to sacrifice those who have stood by us in 
our hour of need. It was utterly impossible for any 
Northern man, however faithful to the interests of the 
South, to advocate the revival of the Afi'ican slave 
trade. There were exceptional cases, anomahes in 
nature, lusits naturce, like the editor of the Day Book, 
but he was but an exception. The gentleman fiom 
Alabama (Mr. Yancey) said yesterday — whether he 
intended it as a compliment or a reproach — said that 
the National Democratic party was the only ligament 
that united the North and South, and he was unwilling 
to sacrifice it. 

This proposition, if endorsed, would shock the moral 
sentiment of Christendom. Some may say that they 
do not care for that. But we of the South who profess 
to be Christians should endeavor, if possible, without 
sacrificing rights, to seek rather to propitiate the moral x 
sentiment of Christendom. He was not willing to 
throw the gauntlet in the face of the Christian world. 
He was very much governed by considerations of 



376 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

policy. And the sentiment of the Christian world was 
gradually coming around to one standpoint. 

Look at England with her Coolies, and France with 
her apprentices. The despatch from our Minister to 
France shows a gradual amelioration in sentiment upon 
this subject. We should bide our time, and not, by 
this public action, give our institutions an irretrievable 
recoil. Quieta non movere. Allow things to go along 
smoothly. 

He objected to the introduction of a horde of barba- 
rians from Africa among us. That was incompatible 
with the present status of slavery here. Ours is a 
patriarchal institution now, founded in pity and pro- 
tection on the one side, and dependence and gratitude 
on the other. It would become under this policy like 
slavery in Cuba, where the master is forced to be cruel 
and stern in his government and control of slavery. 
It would create a new grade of slavery, and create in 
the slaves we already have a feehng of superiority that 
we should avoid. 

In short, this proposition to revive the African Slave 
Trade was purely and simply a proposition to dissolve 
the Union, because it cannot be carried out while the 
Union lasts. When that proposition is boldly and 
openly made, Virginia, though a border State, would 
not shrink from her duty. But Vfrginia was unwilling 
to put the perpetuity of this Union upon any such 
issue as this proposition to kidnap cannibals upon the 
coast of Congo and contend with the King of Dahomey 
in the marts of wild Africa for the purchase of slaves 
there. If you intend dissolution, declare it boldly and 
manfully. [Applause.] Present your proposition with 
your preamble and resolutions, and we will meet you 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 377 

upon it, and either acquiesce and go with you heartily 
and zealously, or give our reasons for not doing so. 

Mr. John A. Jones, of Georgia — Will the gentleman 
go, go now, to-day, for a dissolution of the Union ? 
[Applause.] 

Mr. Pryor — I am not going to take a position 
outside of the Union until I can go with a united South. 
Give me a case of oppression and tyranny sufficient to 
justify a dissolution of the Union, and give me a united 
South, and then I am wilHng to go out of the Union. 
[Applause.] 

Mr. Jones — If the gentleman waits for an undivided 
South he never will go out of the Union. 

Mr. Pryor — I will not so stigmatize any State or 
any class of my fellow citizens by believing that when a 
case arises sufficient to justify a dissolution of the 
Union, any State of the South will stand back. In no 
crisis has the Old Dominion ever been recreant to her 
duty. When the ball of the • revolution was set in 
motion in 1774, Virginia was not behind. When 
Jackson desired to send the Federal troops to crush 
out South Carolina, Virginia was not recreant to her 
duty. [Applause.] But recollect that the first onset, 
in case of revolution, must be met by Virginia, and 
gentlemen must not expect of her an inordinate enthu- 
siasm that may be felt by others not situated as she is. 
But take my word for it, Virginia will not disparage 
the memory of h6r illustrious heroes, and abdicate the 
proud position she now occupies in th6 annals of our 
country. The true position o'f the South was the 
position of defence. We claim nothing but our rights, 
nothing more than our forefcithers guaranteed to us, 
and so help us God, Virginia will never take less than 



378 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEDERACY. 

that. If there is to be a disseverance of the Union, let 
there be no disseverance of the South. Believe the 
border States true and loyal ; recollect that suspicion 
begets resentment. Let us collect our energies for the 
final struggle, so that when it comes, the entire South 
may precipitate herself upon the foe, like a thunderbolt 
fi'om Heaven, with irresistible effect. 

This speech of Mr. Pryor was received with great 
f ivor b}'^ that portion of the immense audience which 
was opposed to a disruption of the Democratis party 
and to forcing issues upon the people of the Nortli. 
The applause which greeted his resistance to the new 
proposition of the States-Rights leaders, the opening 
of the African slave trade had barely died away when 
Mr. Yancey obtained the floor. He said that he had, 
under the circumstances, considered it advisable to 
prepare a report embodying his views, which he would 
submit to the Convention. He then proceeded to 
read his report, Avhich concluded with the following 
resolution : 

" Resolved, That th<j laws of Congress prohibiting 
" the foreign slave trade ought to be repealed." 

Mr. Yancey said that he supposed that the 
gist of the remarks of the gentleman from Vu'ginia 
(Mr. Pryor) was to be found, like the impor- 
tant part of a lady's letter, in the postscript. He sup- 
posed the true reason for his opposition to the report of 
the committee was to be found in the latter part of 
his speech, the effect that it would ha\e upon our 
friends at the North. God save us from such friends. 
Have their fidelity and friendship been exhibited in the 
recent passage of the Conference Bill concerning 
Kansas ? And yet we are told in a Southern Con- 



THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. StO 

vention to reflect before we assert our undoubted right, 
upon the effect it will have upon our Northern aUies. 
Are we never to give an open, manly, frank avowal of 
our constitutional position in the Union, or must we 
depend upon a mere subterfuge, in regard to the 
meaning of which there are a half a dozen diflefent 
opinions ? Then, unlike the gentleman from Virginia, 
he \vas for disunion now. [Applause.] He would 
shed his blood to save the Union as our fathers left it, 
but not the Union which has been reared upon its ruins. 
The Union of our fathers has already been dissolved by 
oppression and fraud, and there was no drop of blood 
in his heart that he was not ready to shed in defence 
of Southern rights against that Union. [Ai»plause.] 

What was the measure recommended to the Con- 
vention? The repeal of a law which discriminates 
against the labor of the South. Is there an Alabamiau 
here who does not endorse that sentiment ? Is there 
a Virginian here who does not endorse it ? The Gen- 
eral Government has no right to discriminate against 
us. The Constitution does not authorize it. It says : 
'^ Congress shall enact no law prohibiting the emigra- 
" tion or importation of such persons as the States now 
"allow before the year 1808." That very clause 
was a constitutional guarantee of slavery and the slave 
trade, because it fojbid Congress to interfere with it 
before 1808. In 1807 a law was passed that after 
1808 no slaves should be imported into this Union, 
which law was unconstitutional in its discrimination 
against the South. 

Ill 1807 the slave trade was declared a misdemeanor. 
In 1820 it was declared piracy. And yet we must 
not demand the repeal of these discriminating laws lor 



380 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

fear we may offend our Northern allies, and perchance 
defeat some aspirant for the Presidency. The gentle- 
man from Virginia refers to the opinions of Christen- 
dom upon this subject — they are rather the opinions of 
devildom. The great advocates of what is called 
Christendom have met in convention in the Northern 
States and voted if the Bible recognized slavery, it was 
the work of the devil rather than of God. And New 
England male and female teachers and parents have 
endeavored to impress upon the minds of the youth 
there that God himself should be dethroned if he recog- 
nized African slavery. 

Now, if it is wrong to hold slaves and to buy them 
and sell them, it is right in morals and under the Con- 
stitution which guarantees the institution, that we 
should buy them in whatever place we may choose to 
select. He did not wish to be compelled to go to 
Virginia and buy slaves for $1,500 each, when he 
could get them in Cuba for $600, or upon the coast of 
Guinea for one-sixth of that sum. 

As to the reduction in the value of land by the 
re-opening of the slave trade, he would ask why the 
land in the South, though as rich and fertile as any 
in the world, brought less in the market than the com- 
pai'atively sterile lands of New England and New York ? 
It was because the South lacked the supply of labor 
necessary to cultivate her land, while in the North the 
land was not enough for the su[)ply of labor. 

There is no amount of ingenious reasoning, no clap- 
trap of words, no trick in language that can do away 
with the great law that if you increase the number of 
slave owners you increase the basis of the institution. 
There is no denying that there is a large emancipating 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 381 

interest in Virginia, and Kentucky, and Maryland, and 
Missouri, the fruits of which we see in Henry Winter 
Davis, Cassius M. Clay, and Thomas H. Benton. We 
need to strengthen this institution ; and how better can 
we do that than by showing the non-slave- holding class 
of our citizens that they can buy a negro for $200 
which, in a few years, by his care and instruction, will 
become worth a thousand dollars? Teach the poor 
white man who cannot now buy a negro, that by this 
means he can buy one, you secure him to the interests 
of the South. 

But it is said to us — cui hono 1 What good in this ? 
The North has the power, and will not repeal these 
laws. That is no reason why we should not resist. 
Nations should be actuated by the same high sense of 
honor as individuals. If a man spits in my face I will 
strike him, though he may thrash me. I know we 
cannot wrest this justice from the dominant North. 
They have fastened the shackles upon us, and will not 
loose them. But let us stand up and resist them like 
men. If the principle of submission is to sway the 
councils of the South, it will not be long before will be 
fulfilled the boast of Seward that the whole American 
Continent would soon be under the flag of this Union^ 
and there would not be upon it the foot of a slave. He 
is a calm, cool man, not given to imaginative specula- 
tion, but he spoke this in the fullness of his heart as 
what he believed. He said this when goaded by his 
thick-headed associate, Hale, for voting for the increase 
of the army, which he expected to command himself in 
18 GO, that he had not designed us to get a glimpse of 

There are elements entering into the opinions of 
gentlemen upon this question that ought not to enter 



382 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

here — elements of national party, opinions of Chris- 
tendom, etc. Public sentiment needs some corrective 
upon this subject ; and that corrective can only be 
made by directing the public attention to this subject. 
We can agitate our wrongs ; we have no rights 1 fear 
to agitate ; we can agitate our injuries ; we have no 
favors to talk about. 

We are told that we should not assert the rights of 
the South upon this issue. Will the gentleman fi'om 
Virginia say what is the issue upon which the South 
should contest their rights ? 

Mr. Pryor said he was not wiUing to assert the 
rights of the South upon the proposition to kidnap 
cannibals from Africa, or buy slaves of the King of 
Dahomey. But should a Black Republican President 
be installed in the I'-xecutive chair in Washington, and 
the power of the government be palpably in his hands 
— whenever the gentleman can satisfy the intelligence 
of the people of the South in sufficient numbers to justify 
the movement, then he was willing to make the issue, 
and he could pledge Virginia not to be behind Ala- 
bama. And he would say further, that when the 
issue was presented, and he was convinced that a 
majority even of the people of Alabama were, upon 
mature consideration, willing to leave the Union, they 
of Virginia would be ready to go with them. [Ap- 
plause.] 

Mr. Yancey said he was unfeignedly happy that he 
had been able to draw from the gentleman from Vir- 
ginia such a declaration. This morning he was for 
waiting for a united South ; now he would join with 
Alabama alone. The speaker had great hopes in 
agitating this (question ; he trusted that the attention 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 383 

of the people of the South would be aroused to the 
assertion of their rights. If this demand should be 
refused by the North, it would be one other evideuee 
that injustice is the ruling spirit of the hour in our 
national legislature. There would be one link more 
between Southern men and Southern men— one link 
more snapped between Southern men and Northern 
men. 

The speech of Mr. Yancey on this occasion is said to 
have been one of his best. From the imperfect reports 
of it, we can only gather the fact that he and his 
friends, in advocating such a preposterous measure as 
an agitation for a repeal of the laws prohibiting the 
African slave trade and declaring it to be piracy, were 
simply attempting, by advocating extreme propositions, 
to snap the last feeble links which held together the 
Democratic party. Such was his plain declaration. 
He wanted disunion now. But Mr. Pryor, and those 
who thought with him, were not then for disunion. 
Fearing that his answer to Mr. Yancey's last question 
might be misunderstood, Mr. Pryor explained that 
what he had intended to say was that he did not sup- 
pose that Alabama would undertake to leave the Union 
without sufficient cause as would justify every other 
Southern State in the Confederacy from following her. 

Mr. HiLLiARD, who had now left his old Whig friends 
and had become a pai'tisan of the Buchanan Adminis- 
tration, replied to the speech of Mr. Yancey : He 
contended that the power granted to Congi-ess to 
regulate commerce with foreign nations, oave them 
power to regulate the iVfrican Slave Trade ; and the 
clause in the Constitution referred to by Mr. Yancey, 
merely restricted them from exercising that power 



384 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

before 1808, expressly conceding to Congress the 
power to do so after that time. Such had been the 
opinion of the framers of the Constitution ; such the 
opinion of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and also of 
John C. Calhoun, who was a member of Monroe's Cabi- 
net when the act of 1820 was passed declaring the 
slave trade to be piracy. 

He was not prepared to go for a dissolution now 
upon existing causes, and upon mere abstractions and 
questions of doubtful policy. He believed that the 
time had come, however, when the South must resist 
all aggression upon her institutions, or give them up, 
and he believed that she would do so. He believed 
when there should be made or attempted a palpable 
infringement of the rights of the South, she would be 
united in her resistance. He admitted that there had 
been improper legislation, and that South Carolina was 
right in the stand she took, and he believed she had 
brought the General Government back again to the 
right track, and he preferred to-day, if we could bring 
the government to the right track and preserve the 
integrity of the Constitution, to remain in the Union 
and preserve our rights there. He thought the 
present indications were such as to lead us to believe 
that such will be the case. He alluded to the decision 
of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case — to the 
known opinions of the present Chief Magistrate as 
evidence. And he said that he believed if the case 
should be carried to the Supreme Court, the decision 
would be that slaveholders have the constitutional 
right to pass through any State in this Union with his 
slaves. He thought the progress of this Government 
was onward in the right direction, and not backward. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 385 

He thought there would be a disposition on the part of 
the North now to yield us all our rights. And he was 
not for disunion upon the present issues with the Fed- 
eral Government. 

As for the fears expressed by gentlemen here that 
the North will triumph hereafter over the South, he 
could not join with them. Now that the South was 
hilly aroused, he thought she would be able to defeat 
the North in the future. He thought the aspect of 
aflairs at present was hopeful, and with the present 
prospect he was not prepared to-day to abandon the 
Union for existing causes of complaint. But he would 
say that in his judgment the election of a Black Re- 
publican to the Presidency would result in the subver- 
sion of the Government. The people of the South 
would not wait to see him clothed with the insignia of 
office ; would not wait for any overt act ; the end will 
then have come. But he did not desire to see the 
South divided upon such a question as this ; we 
are now one people — a united people. Let us remain 
in the Union, one and undivided, or let us go out of it, 
if go we must, a united people. 

Mr. Wm. Ballard Preston, of Virginia, representing 
that conservative Whig element which Mr. Hilliard 
had parted from, obtained the floor. 

In regard to the constitutionality of the laws sought 
to be repealed, he would ask the Convention if they 
would not be compelled to go with him against this 
pohcy, if he should succeed in showing to them that 
these laws were constitutional ? The doctrine of the 
States-Rights school was to uphold the Constitution, 
and not from any motive of interest, gain or ambition, 
to surrender one jot or tittle of that revered instru- 



386 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

ment. He read from the Madison Papers containing 
the debates on the Constitution of the United States, to 
show that the Constitution as at first reported contained 
a provision that no navigation act should be passed by 
Congress except by a two-third vote of all the members 
present ; and no law should be passed prohibiting the 
importation of African slaves. Upon that a conflict 
arose between the North and the South. The matter 
was recommitted to the committee of detail to endeavor 
to frame some provision which should reconcile the 
conflicting interests of the two sections, and the result 
was the provision in the present Constitution under 
which these prohibitory laws had been passed. 

Mr. P. read from the remarks of Mr. Pinckney, of 
South Carolina, to show that at the time this clause 
was reported he and ot'hers from the South, in the 
Convention, understood it to grant the power to pro- 
hibit the importation of African slaves after the year ^ 
1808. It was considered a bargain struck, a contract 
made by the patriotic framers of the Constitution, in 
order to unite the two conflicting interests of the North 
and South, and enable them to form this Federal 
Union. 

The gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Yancey) argues 
in his report that these laws are discriminating against 
the South, and constitute a degrading badge, a dishon- 
orable mark upon the South. By whom was the law of 
1808 passed? By a Democratic Congress, sanctioned 
by the administration of Thomas Jefierson, in which 
was -James Madison, one of the original framers of the 
Constitution. Was it to be believed that those men 
who framed the resolutions of '98 and '99, and inaugu- 
rated and established the doctrine of States-Rights, 



THE ORADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 387 

could in eight years have so changed, or have become 
so far forgetful of the rights of the South as to have 
sanctioned a law that places the brand of Cain upon her 
forehead, and stamps her with dishonor before the civil- 
ized world? Who passed the law of 1812 authorizing 
the employment of a naval force upon the coast of 
Aliica, to suppress the traffic in African slaves? A 
Democratic Congress, and James Monroe was in the 
executive chair. He had Wm. H. Crawford and John 
C. Calhoun in his cabinet to advise and counsel him. 
Shall we now say that our ancestors were dull, obtuse, 
incomprehensive, and neghsjent of the rights of the 
South, insensible to degradation and willing to bear the 
brand of dishonor before Christendom ? Not so. He 
stood there to preserve the inheritance of glory and 
honor which had descended to him and to all of the 
South from these men. These laws were constitutional, 
the power to pass them having been freely yielded by 
the South, and which power had also been exercised 
by Southern men. He was not in favor of taking any 
equivocal position, in which the honor, integrity and 
fairness of the South can in any manner be questioned. 
Should we do so, we will lose all that, should it become 
necessary for us to go out of the Union, would take us 
out with honor, a sense of justice and right that could 
not be gainsaid. 

The South should be united, should be able to go 
up to the Federal Government with a united array, 
whenever it was deemed necessary to demand redress 
for wrongs inflicted, or the granting of rights refosed. 
How stands the South upon this question ? But two 
States had had the question brought before them, 
Louisiana and South Carolina, and they had taken no 



388 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

action. Your entire representation in the popular 
branch of Congress, at the session before the last, had, 
with the exception of eight or ten, solemnly resolved 
that it was inexpedient, unwise, and contrary to the 
settled policy of the country^ to re-open the African 
Slave Trade. To accomplish the object here recom- 
mended, you must first attack and overthrow all your 
public men who had expressed their opinions upon this 
subject. We should act like wise statesmen, and not 
seek to do that which is impracticable and impossible ; 
to do that for the South which the South herself, 
speaking through her representatives, has declared to 
be unwise and inexpedient. 

Mr. Yancey closed the debate in a speech of even 
greater force than that with which he opened it. He 
had been assailed on all sides, and it was the hot battle 
of argument which invariably called forth his closest 
logic and most brilliant rhetoric. 

He believed that the laws prohibiting the Afi-ican 
slave trade were in spirit unconstitutional. He ad- 
mitted that gentlemen upon the other side had pro- 
duced authorities to show that w^hen these laws were 
passed, they might not have been in opposition to the 
letter of the Constitution, and were not intended by 
those who passed them to work injuriously to the 
South. Yet they might well have become in their 
eflfects repugnant to the spirit of the Constitution. It 
was no sound argument against his position, to say that 
the constitutionality of these laws had not been ques- 
tioned until within a very brief period. The Missouri 
Compromise, approved by Mr. James Monroe, had been 
considered constitutional for more than 30 years. And 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 389 

yet Id 1857 the Supreme Court of the United States 
had declared it tq be unconstitutional. 

It had been urged against the proposition before the 
Convention that it would produce division among the 
people of the South. He would ask, upon what is the 
South now united ? The South was not even united 
upon the question whether she was right or wrong in 
asserting that her rights had been trampled upon by the 
North to such an extent as to justify her breaking the 
bonds of this Union. The Convention had been ad- 
dressed by eloquent gentlemen, to the effect that noth- 
ing had yet been done to justify such a course upon 
the part of the South. All admit that we have suffered 
wrongs and injuries. And the only thing that the 
South are united upon is that we are submitting to 
these wrongs. And the proposition now before the 
Convention cannot destroy a unity which does not exist 
among the Southern people. 

It was argued against this measure that the South 
would not unite upon it. He knew there would be 
opposition to it. He never expected to see the day 
when a Southern convention met upon Southern issues 
would be superior to that band of patriots that met in 
the convention that framed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, for even there were some in that body who 
proposed for a little time longer to trust to the clem- 
ency of the British Crown before extreme measures were 
resorted to. It was human nature that there should 
ever be found some such men in every body that should 
assemble to discuss so mighty a question as one in 
which life, fortune and sacred honor were involved. He 
therefore never expected a unity of action on the part 
of the South on any. one issue. But one thing would 



390 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

influence one mind ; another thing would influence still 
another mind, till at last afl these influences would pro- 
duce sufficient efiect to enable the South to move 
forward from a Lexington to a Bunker Hill, and so go 
until the foe had been driven from the land. 

It was said that this was an inferior issue. A tax of 
three cents a pound on tea was practically an inferior 
issue. But,' as his colleague (Mr. Scott) had said, that 
involved a great piinciple. A great principle was in- 
volved here, the principle of equahty, the principle that 
our government should not be permitted to brand our 
institutions as unworthy of extension, even if the letter 
of the Constitution gave it the power to do so. 

He could produce a proposition — if it would not be 
considered presumption in him to do so — let us meet 
and consult together upon this question ot the duty of 
the South now, and if the assembled sovereignty of 
the South should say, wait, we are not ready to move 
now, he would respect that voice. But perhaps that 
Convention might say, we do not wish to move alone — 
in Alabama, for instance — but would prefer to have all 
the other States with us. He would go to Virginia, and 
though she cannot move on account of her peculiar 
border position, she might say in a spirit of true sister- 
hood to the Gulf States — move ^on, form your Confed- 
eracy, and we will see that you are not molested by a 
foe that should reach you across our territory. A nd if 
Virginia should give that response, he would take her 
by the hand and bid her farewell and turn Southwards 
and ask South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Texas, Florida, Arkansas, and Ijouisiana, to form a 
conlederacy of right and equality and justice, with a 
unity of clime, production and brotherly love. And 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 391 

when they had thus done, there would be room enough 
upon our shield to inscribe the " Sic Semper Tyrannis " 
of Virginia. North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, 
and Missouri could come in, and there would soon be 
produced such a retrograde mo^^ement in the opinions of 
the Noi'th that there would not be a Yankee within a 
hundred miles of the border of the slave confedeiacy 
who would not become a slave catcher if we would let 
him trade with us. This was but a faint foreshadowing 
of an idea that was at the bottom of his heart, but which 
he had kept down, because he had not been shown the 
proper time to give it shape. 

It was in the course of this address that Mr. Yancet 
alluded to the position assumed by Mr. Htlliard, that 
nothing had yet occured to justify secession, but thnt 
the election of a Republican President in 18G0 would 
justify it. The language of Mr. Yancey, as taken 
down at the moment by a short-hand reporter, was 
this: 

" I say with all deference to my colleague (Mr. Hil- 
" Hard) that no more inferior issue could be tendered to 
" the South, upon which we should dissolve the Union, 
" than the loss of an election. Ifj in the contest of 
" 18G0 for the Presidency, Seward should receive the 
" legal number of votes necessary to elect him accord- 
'' ing to the Constitution and the law, gentlemen say 
" that then will be the time to dissolve the Union. If 
" that is made the cause of disunion, I say to them I 
" will go with them, but 1 am going in the wake of an 
" ijiterior issue ; that there was a banner over me that 
" is not of the kind I would wish. When I am asked 
" to raise the flag of revolution against the Constitution, 
" I am asked to do an unconstitutional thing, according 
'to the Constitution as it now exists; I am asked to 
" put myself in the position of a rebel, of a traitor ; in 



392 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" in a position where, if the Government should suc- 
"" ceed and put me down in the revolution, I and my 
'' friends can be arraigned before the Supreme Court of 
" the United States — which would be the creature of 
" Seward, as he has already given notice in the Senate — 
" and there sentenced to be hanged for violating the 
" Constitution and the laws of my country. And if I 
" should be asked why sentence should not be passed 
" on me, I could not then, as I can now in reference to 
" past issues — I could not say then, even to the bloody 
" judges who would sit upon the bench — my hands are 
" guiltless of wrong against the Constitution of my 
" country, and I appeal to an enlightened posterity, to 
" the judgment of the world, to vindicate my name and 
" memory, when, as Emmett said, my country shall 
" have taken her place once more an equal among the 
" nations of the earth. Why am I ready to go with 
" you ? (for disunion.) Because, in my judgment, the 
" Union is now dissolved ; because we have a Govern- 
" ment, but not the Union which the Constitution 
" made." 

Subsequently, when the Alabama Legislature resolved 
that the election of a Republican President would 
justify secession, Mr. Yancey explained this language 
by saying that with him and men of his way of think- 
ing, the justification had already existed for thirty 
years, but with those who had thus far found no justifi- 
cation for such a movement, the election of Lincoln 
simply could not furnish the excuse. 

No action was taken by the Commercial Convention 
upon the several reports and sets of resolutions. The 
proceedings derive importance simply from the glimpse 
they give of the opinions and temper of the leading 
minds of the South relative to the question of disunion. 

Congress had virtually refused Kansas admittance to 
the Union with a Constitution recognizing slavery. So 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 393 

now, as in 1850, the States-Rights leaders commenced 
an agitation for secession. Soon after the adjournment 
of the Southern Commercial Convention, Mr. Slaughter 
wrote to Mr. Yancey suggesting that the South resolve 
itself itself into a great States-Rights party, and that 
the old National Democratic party be abandoned. To 
this letter Mr. Yancey rephed as follows : 

" Montgomery, June 15, 1858. 

*' Dear Sir : Your kind favor of the 15th is re- . 
" ceived. 

" I hardly agree with you that a general movement 
" can be made that will clear out the Augean stable. 
" If the Democracy were overthrown, it would result in 
" giving place to a greater and hungrier swarm of flies. 

" The remedy of the South is not in such a process. 
" It is in a diligent organization of her true men for 
" prompt resistance to the next aggression. It must 
" come in the nature of things. No national party can 
" save us ; no sectional party can ever do it. But if 
" we could do as our fathers did — organize ' commit- 
" tees of safety ' all over the cotton States (and it is 
" only in them that we can hope for any effective 
" movement,) we shall fire the Southern heart, instruct 
" the Southern mind, give courage to each other, and 
" at the proper moment, by one organized concerted 
" action, we can precipitate the cotton States into revo- 
" lution." 

" The idea has been shadowed forth in the South by 
" Mr. Ruifin ; has been taken up and recommended in 
" the Advertiser, under the name of * League of United 
" Southerners,' who, keeping up their old party relations 
*• on all other questions, will hold the Southern issue 
•' paramount, and will influence parties, Legislatures 



394 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" and statesmen. I have no time to enlarge, but to 
" suggest merely. In haste, yours, &c.. 

"W. L. Yancey. 
" To James S. SlaugJiter, Usg." 

On the 10th of July, at a barbecue given at Bethel 
Church, near Montgomery, Mr. Yancey spoke in favor 
of the " League," saying that he " bided the time when 
" the people would throw ofl' the shackles, both of party 
" and of the Government, and assert their independence 
" in a Southern Confederacy." At another barbecue 
given at Benton, July 17, he again recommended the 
formation of local and State Leagues, and a Central 
Southern Congress of the Leagues. At Montgomery, 
July 20th, he again urged the establishment of the 
the Leagues. He said that in this matter the people 
were not without a great precedent. Long before the 
Declaration of Independence, long before it was 
dreamed (save by a few) that the colonies would be 
compelled to withdraw from the British Empire — while 
the provincial Congress were even yet discussing the 
phraseology of their petitions to the King to redress 
their grievances, the colonists acting upon the wise 
practical principle of " Pray to God and keep your 
" powder dry," formed committees of safety all over the 
country. These committees were active in forming a 
pubhc opinion and giving voice to that opinion, in 
gathering up munitions of war, and in every conceiva- 
ble way organizing our ancestry into such an array 
that when independence was declared they were nblo to 
crown it with the triumph of Yorktown. The lesson 
and the example, said Mr. Yancey, are eminently sug- 
gestive. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 395 

Never was there such an agitator as William L. 
Yanoey. His person was imposing, his eloquence 
was always attractive, for(,'ible and captivating, at times 
almost supernatural. He was fully imbued with the 
policy of the leading minds of his native State, South 
Carolina, and he lost no occasion upon which to enforce 
that policy. With the language of Demosthenes 
against Philip, he had the will which urged Caesar 
across the Rubicon, and the persistence which placed 
the crown upon the brow of Robert Bruce. But, 
although the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution 
by Congress, the denunciation of the Supreme Court by 
the dominant party at the North, and the declaration 
of the " irrepressible conflict " by Mr. Seward aided 
him in his efforts at agitation, still the views of Mr. 
Yancey met a strong opposition at his own door and far 
stronger resistance in the border States. Mr. Pryor, 
with his brilliant pen, assailed the Leagues vigorously, 
and indulged in an acrimonious debate with Mr. 
Yancey. In reply to one of Mr. Pryor's most forcible 
articles, Mr. Yancey published an elaborate defence of 
his course. His letter to Mr. Pryor reveals the preva- 
lent sentiment of the States-Rights men of the Gulf 
States, the position of the border States, and the facts 
and expectations upon which they based the ultimate 
independence of the South. He said : 

" You take exception to these expressions ; ' Let us 
" form these leagues all over the cotton States, as it is 
" only in them we can hope for any effective movement.' 
" * At the proper moment, by one organized, concen- 
" trated action, we can prcicipitate the cotton States into 
"a revolution.' Commenting on this, you say, 'the 
" leading States of the South are specifically excluded 



396 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" from his plan of concerted operations ; and that is 
" done on the avowed pretence of a lack of Southern 
" spirit in Virginia and the other border States !' 

" To be candid," I place but little trust in such States 
"as Delaware, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky, and 
" Missouri. In the first, slavery is but a nominal insti- 
" tution ; and anti-slavery ideas prevail to a large extent. 
" In Maryland, a freesoiler is an honored representative 
"in Congress; and, in the great issue in 1856, that 
" State separated herself from her sisters and voted for 
" Fillmore. Tennessee has long maintained a Free Soil 
" Senator in Congress, and a large minority now sustain 
" him there. In the Methodist Conference her dele- 
" gates voted against striking out the anti-slavery 
" clause in its discipline — while she maintains on her 
" Supreme Court bench, and in the chair of law pro- 
" fessorship in her University, one who openly declares 
" ' slavery to be a moral, social and political evil.' In 
" Missouri, Benton was upheld when unsound on this 
" issue — was sent to the House of Representatives 
" when ousted from the Senate, because of his anti- 
" slavery ideas ; and now the St. Louis District is 
" represented by a Free Soiler, who is a candidate for 
"re-election upon the emancipation platform. Sur- 
" rounded, as she almost is, by free soil territory, her 
" slave owners are emigrating in large numbers to 
" Texas, and will soon leave her a prey to Seward's 
" abolition system of legislation. 

" In Kentucky Mr. Clay's emancipation and coloni- 
" zation ideas are bearing legitimate fruit, and Mr. 
" Crittenden holds powerful sway over the affections of 
" its people ; and it is hardly to be doubted but that 
" Mr. Crittenden, conjoined with the Anti-Slavery 



# 

THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 397 

" Anieiican party of the North, would carry Kentucky. 
" I may well be excused, then, if I said, in private cor- 
" respondence (what I frankly confess I would have 
" hesitated to make a matter of public discussion) that 
" I only hoped for an effective movement in the cotton 
" States. There is much in the way in which an idea 
" is put. I said this much, and no more. I did not 
" write, as you have charged, either in words or in 
'"' spirit, that I acted on an avotved pretence of a lack 
" of Southern spirit i7i Virginia and the other border 
" States. That is your own language and idea — and I 
" repudiate both. I did not name Virginia. It is true 
" I did not discriminate between Virginia and the 
" other border States. My purposes did not call for it. 
"In a hastily written private note, it would have been 
" out of place, as between Mr. Slaughter and myself. 

" It is equally true that I do not expect Virginia to 
" take any initiative steps towards a dissolution of the 
" Union, when that exigency shall be forced upon the 
" South. Her position as a border State, and a well 
" considered Southern policy — (a policy which has 
" been digested and understood and approved by some 
" of the ablest men in Virginia, as you yourself must 
" be aware) — would seem to demand that, when such 
" movement takes place by any considerable number of 
" Southern States, Virginia and the other border States 
" should remain in the Union, where, by their position 
" and their counsels, they could prove move effective 
" fiiends than by moving out of the Union, and thus 
" giving to the Southern Confederacy a long abolition, 
" hostile border to watch. In the event of the move- 
" ment being successful, in time, Virginia, and the 
" other border States that desired it, could join the 



398 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" Southern Confederacy, and be protected by the 
*' power of its arms and its diplomacy. 

" Your charge, that I designed to, and did impeach 
" the fidehty of Virginia, is untrue, however much of 
" truth there may be in it with reference to those border 
" States that I have named. 

" The article in your issue of the 21st also assailed 
" me as having opened ' a new school of Southern 
" statesmanship,' and having abandoned the old and 
*' wisely considered policy of Southern unity, and ' sub- 
" stituted a system of mutual suspicion and isolated 
" action.' 

" I cheerfully accept the position assigned me as a 
" member of ' A New School of Southern Statesman- 
" ship,' however far you may consider it from being 
" compUmentary. In my opinion the South stands 
" greatly in need of such a school. The benefits of that 
" old school of statesmanship, which you applaud so 
" much, are few, while its aggregate results have been, 
" in a high degree, disastrous to the South. Under the 
" influence of that ' old school,' that magnificent pro- 
" slavery domain, now covered by the anti-slavery 
" States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
" and Iowa, was excluded from the march of Southern 
" progress, and devoted forever to 6*00 soil ; under the 
" same ' old school ' influence, four-fifths of the vast 
" pro-slavery territory of Louisiana was wrested from 
" us, and the South forever excluded fi'om settling it 
" with her institutions ; under the same influence, the 
" black line of 36 deg. 30 min. was run through the 
" pro-slavery State of Texas ; under the same influ- 
" ence, the slave trade with Afiica was prohibited, and 
" afterwards an entangling and most mischievous alii- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 399 

"ance made with England to scud men and ships to 
" blockade the coast of Africa ; under the same influ- 
'' ence, the* internal slave trade between Virginia and 
" the District of Columbia was abolished ; and, under 
" the same old school influence, has the haughty de- 
" mand of the Free Soiler been submitted to — that 
"■ Kansas should not be admitted as a State under its 
" pro-slavery constitution, unless that constitution shall 
" substantially and practically receive the approval of 
" the Free Soil majority in Kansas. 

" That ' old school of Southern statesmanship ' found 
" the South an equal in the Senate, and the owner of 
" nearly all the territories. It has left the South in a 
" minority of two states in the Senate, with five vast 
" Territories, out of which no sane man in the South 
" expects ever to see another pro-slavery State added 
" to the Union ! 

" The policy of that ' old school of Southern states- 
" manship ' has been to ignore as ' wicked and foolish,' 
" and as ' mischievous,' a persistent demand of all our 
" rights in the Union, and to yield a part for ' harmo- 
" ny's ' sake. It has been a policy based upon the 
" maintenance of the harmony of administrations and 
" of parties, upon the advancement of the chances of 
" Presidential aspirants ; and he who has ever become 
'• alarmed at the disastrous results to the South, and 
" has not considered them as at all counterbalanced by 
" the splendid success of parties, and of our great men, 
" in controlling and leading those parties, has invariably 
" been denounced by the partisan editors attached to 
" that ' old school ' as ' factionists ' and ' extremists,' 
*=' and as ' disaflected ' and ' disappointed politicians.' " 



CHA.PTER XV. 



Instructions to Alabama Delegates — Action of the Alabama 
Legislature — Views of Forsyth, White and Others — 
Meeting of the Charleston Convention — Yancey's Great 
Address — Withdrawal of Southern Delegates — Position 
of. Political Parties — Yancey at Baltimore — He is. 
Offered the Vice- Presidency — Nominatio7i of Breckin- 
ridge^ Etc., Etc. 



" The Republican party is a conspiracy, under the forms, but in viola- 
tion of the spirit of the Constitution of the United States to exclude the 
citizens of the slave-holding States from all share in the government of 
the country, and to compel them to adapt their institutions to the opin- 
ions of citizens of free States,"— [Speech of Judge Wm. Duer, of N. Y., at 
Osivego, Aug. 6, 1860. 

" Remember, in addition to this, that the leading Abolitionists ac- 
knowledged no law which might stand in the way of their interests or 
their passions. Against anybody else the Constitution of the country 
would have been a protection. But they disregarded its limitations, and 
had no scruples about swearing to support it with a predetermination to 
violate it. We had been well warned by all the men best entitled to our 
confidence— particularly and eloquently warned by Mr. Clay and Mr. 
Webster— that if ever the Abolitionists got a hold upon the organized 
physical force of the country, they would govern without law, scoff at the 
authority of the courts, and throw down all the defences of civil liberty." 
[Judge Jebe S. Black.] 

On the eleventh day of January, 1860, the Demo- 
cratic party of Alabama met in Convention at Mont- 
gomery and adopted, with singular unanimity, a series 
of resolutions declaring that the principles recognized 
by the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, should 
be maintained by the South ; that their delegates to 
the approaching National Democratic Convention at 
Charleston, should present these resolutions for the 
adoption of that body : that they insist upon the adop- 



402 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

tion of the resolutions in substance; and that if they 
should not be adopted the delegates must withdraw. It 
was provided that in case of the withdrawal of the dele- 
gates, the Executive Committee should call the State 
Convention together to take action as to their next 
step. - r. Yancey was a leading spirit in this Conven- 
tion. After twelve. years he had succeeded in bringing 
his party firmly to the support of the Calhoun resolu- 
tions of 1848. Gen. Cass had evaded the issue then. 
Gen. Pierce, in 1852, had been elected upon the Com- 
promise measures, and the Calhoun pronunciamento at 
that time seemed almost forgotten. In 1856 Mr. Bu- 
chanan had also evaded the issue, under the doubtful 
language of the Cincinnati Convention ; but now in 
1860 the Supreme Court had recognized the justice of 
Mr. Calhoua's position ; had vindicated the principles 
of Mr. Yancey ; and the people of the South, irrespec- 
tive of party, however great the difference among them 
upon mere question,-: of policy, acknowledged the justice 
of the claims preferred by the Democratic State Con- 
vention of Alabama. 

On the 24th of February, 1860, the Alabama Leg- 
islature, with but two dissenting voices, adopted joint 
resolutions declaring that, whereas, a sectional party 
calling itself RepubHcan, committed alike by its own 
acts and antecedents, and the public avowals and secret 
machinations of its leaders to a deadly hostility to the 
rights of the Southern people, has acquired the ascen- 
dency in nearly every Northern State, and hopes by 
success in the approaching Presidential election to 
seize the Government itself^ therefore it shall be the 
duty of the Governor, upon the success of that party 
in the election, to call together a State Convention to 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 403 

consider, determine, and do whatever, in the opinion 
of said Convention, the rights, interests and honor of 
Alabama may require to be done for her protection. 
The resolutions also declared that it was the solemn 
duty of the people not " to permit such seizure (of the 
" Government) by those whose unmistakable aim is to 
" pervert its whole machinery to the destruction of a 
" portion of its members," but " to provide in advance 
" the means by which they may escape such peril and 
" dishonor, and devise new securities for perpetuating 
" the blessings of liberty to themselves and posterity." 

At a later day in their session, the General Assembly 
replied to resolutions forwarded from South Carolina, 
that Alabama had declared that under no circum- 
stances would she submit to the foul domination of a 
sectional Northern party, and had called for a State 
Convention, and had provided money for military con- 
tingencies in the event of the triumph of the Republican 
party in the Presidential election. 

The unanimity with wnich these resolutions were 
adopted was not due to a unanimous purpose to break 
up the Union in the event of a constitutional election of 
a Republican to the Presidency, for during the ensuing 
campaign many leading speakers from the hustings 
advised against disunion until the commission of an 
unconstitutional act, or, as it was called by some, an 
overt act, by a Republican administration ; and very 
many others, constituting it was claimed a majority of 
the people of Alabama, contended that disunion should 
not be attempted by separate State action, but that the 
question should be submitted to a Congress of all the 
Southern States, a majority of which Congress Mr. 
Yancey, in his letter to Mr. Peyor, had clearly shown 



404 TEE C^RAPLK OF THE CORFBIiKBACT. 

would be oppos^ ro secession in any form. The in- 
stzucdons to ^ D^nocratie ddegates to withdraw fix>m 
the Charleston Convention unless the construction 
given bv the Supreme Court to the territorial question 
was recognizedL were voted for by many simply as a 
dii^aty and with the purpose of intimidating the Na- 
tional C-onveniion. It was supp»osed that a proposition 
coming in the shape of a dem;uid firom a united South, 
and coupled with a threat of ruin in the event of its 
retusaL would so operate upon the fears of those who 
could not aftbrd to lose the electoral votes of the 
Southern States, as to secure its recognitiou. The 
same threat was made by the Democratic State Gon- 
v^ition of Akbanm in 1S4S. at the instigation of Mr. 
Ya>"«:et. but the party had not considered itsell' bound 
bv the threat after the nomination of Gen. Cass. So 
now. many of the surging mass who composed the 
State Convention, in vodng for the resolution of with- 
drawal, were more intent upon terrifying their Northern 
associates than upon actually breaking up the only 
ttirional party in existence. As there were many who 
vote*! for the withdrawal with no expectation or desire 
that it would take place, so there were many who, while 
willing for the withdrawal in the event contemplated, 
were honestly of the opinion that such withdrawal woidd 
neither break up the Democratic part}* nor the Union. 
Men of this latter class aj^ed that the nominee of the 
withdrawing States, comprising three-fourths or more 
of those which would certainly cast their electoral votes 
for a Democratic c-andidate, might be finally recognized 
as the legitimate candidate by the controlling ^•oice of 
the Democracy of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jer- 
sey, California, and Oregon, and thus be successfiil ; or. 



THE CBADLE OF THE COTH'EDERACY. 405 

failing in this, they believed that, with three or four 
candidates for the Presidency, there would he no elec- 
tion by the people, and the decision would then rest 
with Congress, as a majority of the Representatives in 
the House, from a majority of the States, was Demo- 
cratic, but opposed to Mr. Douglas, they believed the 
election of their own candidate to be certain, if in the 
end it should have to be determined by that body. If 
the House should faO to elect by the 4th day of March, 
then the Senate, in which the Democratic opponents of 
Mr. Douglas had a clear majorit}', would elect a Vice- 
President, and he would become President by default. 
So argued many of the most intelligent leaders of the 
people, and thus — some actuated by a hope that in- 
timidation would prevail, others that T\ithdrawal would 
not materially affect the part}' vote, and still others 
because of popular clamor — all joined in the instruc- 
tions which rent the Democratic party in twain. Ala- 
bama was the first name on the list of States. Mr. 
Yancey was the most prominent man. It was generally 
conceded that to him should belong the honor of pre- 
senting to the Convention the claims of the South. At 
that day he was the foremost man in importance in 
the whole Union. His eloquent voice was to lay down 
to the United States the ultimatum of the South. 

The unanimity of the General Assembly in the 
passage of the resolutions calling a State Convention in 
the event of Republican victory, was likewise more an 
apparent than an actual unity of sentiment. Many who 
voted for the call were ready to deny that occasion ex- 
isted for extreme action, and in the event of the meeting 
of a convention, would be ready to resort to any delay 
by which the passions of the hour could be assuaged 



406 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

and the dreaded spectre of disunion be exorcised. 
John Forsyth, late Minister to Mexico, then a member 
from Mobile, spoke and voted against the resolutions. 
His remarks proved to be prophetic. Mr. Forsyth, in 
a letter dated Sept. 13, 1859, to Wm. F. Samford, had 
said : 

" But to come to your ultimatum ; for your inabihty 
" to grasp this bit of moonshine, you will go out of the 
" Union ! break up the Government ! Well, sir, you 
" will find a larger majority against you in such a prop- 
" osition in Alabama than you did a few weeks ago, 
" when without the backing of that ' party ' at which 
" you sneer, you sought to be elected Governor of the 
"Commonwealth on the naked strength of your political 
^' theories. Sir, the Union cannot be dissolved upon 
" such issue, and the sin of your course, and that of those 
" who, with you, are agitating this firebrand of abstrac- 
" tion in the Democratic party on the eve of a vital con- 
" flict with the combined hosts of Black Republicanism, is, 
" that in the pursuit of a fallacious hope and an impossi- 
" ble dream, you are paving the way for the defeat of the 
" South ; for bringing it to the footstool of an AboH- 
" tion President, and for draining a deeper cup of 
" humiliation and disgrace than it has yet touched with 
" its lips. I charge that you are no friend of the 
" South in the counsels you give it ; I arraign not your 
" sound heart but your hot head ; I charge that you 
" advise it to risk its controlling influence in the Gov- 
" ernment and disastrous defeat in the forthcoming 
" battle with the Lucifer of fanaticism and his devilish 
" array of Black Republicans. I charge that you 
" propose to break up the Democratic party, and sweep 
" from existence the only obstacle that stands between 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 407 

" the Constitution and the Federal ravish er — to give 
" over the Government to centraHsm, to protective 
" tariffs, to the bottomless abyss of expenditure for 
" internal improvements, to the upheaving and toppling 
" down the mighty structure of Democratic policy 
" which Jefferson founded, and Madison, Jackson, Polk 
" and Pierce have built upon, to the subversion of the 
" form and the spirit of States-Rights as vital elements 
" in our Federative system, to the undoing of all that 
" Democratic statesmen have tired and toiled for during 
" three-quarters of a century. And for what ? For a 
" vague theory of constitutional right as devoid of 
" value, form and substance as the ' baseless fabric of a 
'' vision.' " 

In the same vein Mr. Forsyth addressed the General 
Assembly on the 2d of February, 1860, declaring that 
there was no occasion for the adoption of the resolu- 
tions reported by the Committee on Federal Relations. 
He said that no friend of the Democracy could consis- 
tently go with the late Democratic State Convention, 
because they send to Charleston a platform "'which it 
" is known beforehand cannot be granted without scat- 
'' tering the Democracy of the Union to the winds." 
Said he : "I am in the minority now, perhaps ; I was 
" two months since, but I have seen cheering evidences 
" to show that my little party is growing apace, and 
" that even on this floor my cause has many a friend 
" t hat gentlemen ' wot not of ' But whether I am or 
' not, I am right, and time will prove it." 

A few weeks later Alexander White, who had been 
elected to Congress by the Whig party upon the Com • 
promise of 1850, and who had at a later day joined the 
Democracy, a gentleman who generally represented 



408 THE CRADLE OF THE COKPEDERACY. 

correctly the changes in the popular pulse, published a 
letter in which he opposed the policy of disunion. By 
resorting to a Southern Union, he argued, we brought 
Canada to our own door. The institution of slavery 
being restricted to the Southern Confederacy, it would 
gradually retire from the border to the Gulf States, and 
soon the same elements of discord which existed in the 
old Union would be found rife in the new. Mr. For- 
syth and Mr. White represented a very respectable 
portion of the Democratic party. 

Besides what was afterwards known as the Douglas De- 
mocracy, the entire Whig party at the beginning of this 
eventful year, was in opposition to the spirit of the resolu- 
tions of the General Assembly. It was as late as Septem- 
ber 21 before Mr. Watts, the generally recognized leader 
of the Whigs, announced that the election of Mr. Lin- 
coln would justify secession. Gen. Clanton, who was 
an*elector for Bell and Everett, denounced the policy 
of secession in a hundred speeches, and down to the 
day of Mr. Lincoln's election, contended that neither 
forcible resistance to his administration nor disruption 
of the Union, should be resorted to until some uncon- 
stitutional act was perpetrated. 

The National Democratic Convention met at Charles- 
ton, April 23, 18G0. On the following day a com- 
mittee was appointed, consisting of a delegate from 
each State, selected by the respective State delegations, 
to report resolutions as a platform for the party. On 
the 27th majority and minority reports were made ; 
the majority report accepting the Cincinnati platform 
with a clause explaining" the doctrine of non-interven- 
tion as the South desired and as the Dred Scott 
decision declared it. The minority report, after also 



THE CRADLE OP THE OONFEDERACY. 409 

reaffirming the Cincinnati platform, proceeds : " Inas- 
" much as differences of opinion exist in the Demo- 
'' cratic party as to the nature and extent • of the 
" powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the powers 
" and duties of Congress, under the Constitution of the 
" United States, over the institution of slavery in the 
" Territories, Resolved, That the Democratic party will 
" abide by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
" United States upon questions of constitutional law." 

The Southern delegates held that this minority reso- 
lution was too vague and indefinite to meet the case. 
It failed to recognize that a decision had already been 
rendered by the Court. If the Northern delegates 
intended to stand by that decision, it was impossible to 
say that " differences of opinion " existed among the 
Democracy as to the nature and extent of the powers of 
Congress • and of the Territorial Legislature over the 
institution of slavery. It was moved that the minority 
report be substituted for the majority. It was upon 
this motion that Mr. Yancey addressed the Convention. 
His reputation as an orator had preceded him. On the 
preceding night an immense crowd, with banners and 
music, had waited upon him. To their shouts and 
huzzas he responded only with an excuse for not 
speaking. He was at the chief city of his native State. 
Around him were the abodes of a proud, intelligent, 
high-spirited people, and fi-om the galleries looked 
down an immense concourse of fair ladies and gallant 
gentlemen who sympathized with his past history and 
his present labors. The occasion and the scene were 
enough to inspire one of far less enthusiasm and nobility 
than Yancey. The hour and the man had met. 

Ascending the stand, the orator had pronounced but 



410 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

a few of his well-weighed, rounded and musical sentences 
before he had quieted the noise and confusion which 
invariably attends the collection of a large multitude of 
men, and had riveted the attention of every eye and 
mind. Those who had heard of him as an agitator, 
yielded their objection to his consuming more than one 
hour of time when they looked upon his pleasant, mild 
and benignant face. Those who were disposed to 
clamor against the disunionist, became silent when they 
gazed upon his noble presence. Tlie angry glance 
which followed him from those who had regarded him 
as a plotter of treason, was softened to tears by the 
pathos of the most perfect voice that ever aroused a 
friendly audience to a frenzy of enthusiasm, or curbed 
to silence the tumults of the most inimical. 

With closely woven statements of fact and logical 
deduction, with graceful gesture and melodious tones, 
he advanced, vindicated and defended the caus5 of the 
South. He asked for nothing but the recognition of 
those rights which the highest tribunal had declared to 
belong to the people of the South. Ever and anon 
the audience would break forth in the wildest applause, 
and as the speaker became warm in his subject, and 
the keen reasoning and brilliant illustrations leaped to 
his lips, the responsive shouts of approbation and the 
thunders of the excited multitude became so frequent 
that it was moved by a delegate that the galleries be 
cleared. " No, no," was cried out from all around, 
" there is as much noise upon the tloor." Captain 
Rynders, of New York, arose and shouted that if they 
wished to prevent applause on the floor, they must 
stop Mr. Yancey from speaking ; a piece of tiuthful 
wit that was received with great cheering and laughter. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 411 

The peroration of his magnificent address was 
worthy of the man, the cause, and the occasion. 
Said he : 

" Gentlemen of the Convention, that venerable, that 
" able, that revered jurist, the honorable Chief Justice 
" of the United States, trembling upon the very verge 
" of the grave, for years kept merely alive by the pure 
" spirit of patriotic duty that burns within his breast — 
" a spirit that will not permit him to succumb to the 
" gna wings of disease and the weaknesses of mortality — 
" which hold him, as it were, suspended between two 
" worlds, with his spotless ermine around him, standing 
" upon the very altar of Justice, has given to us the 
" utterance of the Supreme Court of the United States 
" upon this very question. [Applause.] 

" Let the murmur of the hustings be stilled — let the 
" voices of individual citizens, no matter how great and 
" respected in their appropriate spheres, be hushed, 
" while the law, as expounded by the constituted 
" authority of the country, emotionless, passionless and 
" just, rolls in its silvery cadence over the entire realm, 
" from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the ice- 
" bound regions of the North to the glittering waters of 
" the Gulf [Loud cheering.] What says that deci- 
" sion ? That decision tells you, gentlemen, that the 
" Territorial Legislature has no power to interfere with 
" the rights of the slave-owner in the Tenitory while 
'' in a Territorial condition. [Cheers.] That decision 
" tells that this Government is a union of sovereign 
'' States ; which States are co-equal, and in trust for 
" which co-equal States the Government holds the Ter- 
" ritories. It tells you that the people of those co-equal 
" States have a right to go into these Territories, thus 



412 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" held in trust, with every species of property which is 
" recognized as property by the State in which they 
" Hve or by the Constitution of the United States. The 
" venerable Magistrate — the Court concurring with 
" him — decided that it is the duty of this Government to 
" alibrd some government for the Territories which shall 
'' be in accordance with this trust, with this delegated 
" trust power held for the States and for the people of 
" the States. That decision goes still further ; it tells 
" yon that if Congress has seen fit, for its own conven- 
" ience, and somewhat in accordance with the sympa- 
" thies and instincts and genius of our institutions, to 
" accord a form of government to the people of the Ter- 
" ritories, it is to be administered precisely as Congress 
" can administer it, and to be administered as a trust 
" for the co-equal States of the Union, and the citizens 
" of those States who choose to emigrate to those Ter- 
" ritories. That decision goes on to tell you this : that 
" as Congress itself is bound to protect the property 
" which is recognized as such of the citizens of any of 
'• the States — as Congress itself not only has no power, 
" but is expressly forbidden to exercise the power to 
" deprive any owner of his property in the Territories ; 
" therefore, says that venerable, that passionless repre- 
" sentative of Justice, who yet hovers on the confines 
" of the g)'ave — therefore, no government formed by 
" that Congress can have any more power than the 
" Congress that created it. 

" But,"we are met right here with the assertion : we 
" are told by the distinguished advocate of this doctrine 
" of popular^': sovereignty, that this opinion is not a 
"" decision of the Supreme Court, but merely the opinion 
" of citizen Taney. He does not tell you, my coun- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 413 

"• trymen, that it is not the opinion of the great majority 
" of the Supreme Court bench. Oh, no ; but he tells 
" you that it is a matter that is ohiter dicta outside the 
" jurisdiction of the Court ; in other words, extra-judi- 
" cial — that it is simply the opinion of Chief Justice 
" Taney, as an individual, and not the decision of the 
" Court, because it was the subject-matter before the 
" Court. Now, Mr. Douglas and all others who make 
" that assertion and undertake to get rid of the moral, 
" the constitutional, the intellectual power of argument, 
" put themselves directly in conflict with the venerable 
" Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
" States, and with the recorded decision of the Court 
" itself — because Chief Justice Taney, after disposing 
" of the demurrer in that case, undertook to decide the 
" question upon the facts and the merits of the case ; 
" §,nd," said he, "in doing that, we are met with the objec- 
" tion ' that anything we may say upon that part of 
" the case will be extra-judicial and mere ohiter dicta-' 
" This is a manifest mistake," etc., " and the Court — not 
" Chief Justice Taney, but the whole Court, with but 
" two dissenting voices— decided that it was not obiter 
" dicta ; that it was exactly in point, within the juris- 
" diction of the Court, and that it was the duty of the 
" Court to decide it. Now then, who shall the Democracy 
^'recognize as authority on this point — a statesman, no 
" matter how brilliant, and able and powerful in intel- 
" lect, in the very meridian of life — animated by an 
"ardent and consuming ambition — struggling as no 
" other man has ever done for the high and brilliant 
" position of candidate for the Presidency of the United 
" States, at the hand of his great party — or that old 
"and venerable jurist who, having filled his years with 



414 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" honor, leaves you his last great decision before step- 
" ping from the high place of earthly power into the 
" grave to appear before his Maker, in whose presence 
" deception is impossible, and earthly position as dust in 
" the balance ?" [Loud and continued cheering.] 

• Had the States all voted as units, or had the dele- 
gates all voted as individuals, the majority report would 
have been sustained, but the friends of Mr. Douglas, in 
the Pennsylvania delegation, succeeded in obtaining a 
rule by which the vote of each individual should be 
expressed. That State instead, therefore, of casting 
twenty-seven votes for the majority resolutions, cast 
only three. The minority report was substituted for 
the majority, and when the vote was taken upon the 
vague explanatory resolution accompanying the report, 
it was rejected by almost a unanimous vote, both ele- 
ments of the party looking upon it as a subterfuge ^nd 
evasion. 

When the final vote on the last clause of the minori- 
ty report was announced, and the Chair declared that it 
was carried, the dropping of a pin might have been 
heard in the Convention. Every man, woman and 
child within the vast hall in which the delegates assem- 
bled seemed aware that a great crisis had arrived, and 
that events were about to occur in which the dearest 
interests of American citizens were involved. That 
great and hitherto tumultuous assemblage seemed 
awed into silence and intent suspense. The silence was 
broken by Mr. Leroy Pope Walker, of Alabama. In 
a few terse and eloquent remarks he gave his reasons 
why he and his colleagues could not accept the platform 
just adopted in behalf of the people of his State, and 
why, under these circumstances, the Alabama delega- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 415 

tion deemed it their imperative duty to withdraw from 
the Convention. No sooner had Mr. Walker resumed 
his seat, having discharged this solemn task, than Mr. 
Barry, of Mississippi, rose to his feet, and read a paper 
setting forth the reasons why the delegation of his 
State had also resolved to withdraw. When the reading 
of this grave act of secession was finished, the gallant 
and eloquent Colonel Glenn, of Mississippi, in terms of 
simple eloquence, intense feeling, and conscious dignity, 
which touched the heart of every one of the thousands 
who heard him, explained why the Mississippi delega- 
tion had reluctantly taken so serious a step. Then 
arose the venerable ex-Governor Mouton, of Louisiana, 
who declared that he and his co-delegates had resolved 
to withdraw from a Convention which had reftised to 
acknowledge the great fundamental principle of the 
Democratic party, equality of the States. The respec- 
tive chairmen of the delegations from South Carolina, 
Florida, Arkansas, and Texas, then announced that 
they too, would withdraw, and caused to be inserted in 
the minutes of the Convention their several protocols 
containing the reasons which impelled them to do so. 
There was no swagger, no bluster. There were no 
threats, no denunciations. The language employed by 
the representatives of these seven independent sover- 
eignties was as dignified and courteous as it was feeling. 
As one followed the other in quick succession, one could 
see the entire crowd quiver as under a heavy blow. 
Every man seemed to look anxiously at his neighbor as 
if enquiring what is going to happen next. Down 
many a manly cheek flowed tears of heartfelt sorrow. 
A pause of a few moments ensued after Arkansas had 
withdrawn, and people were beginning to resume theii- 



416 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

composure, when the Senator from Delaware, Mr. 
Bayard, was observed to enter the hall and proceed 
rapidly up the central aisle towards the platform. 
When he uttered the words, " Mr. Chairman," in a 
voice not devoid of agitation, although resolute in tone, 
and when the Chairman responded, "The gentleman 
" from Delaware, Mr. Bayard," the Convention again 
held their breath, not knowing what course that high- 
minded statesman was going to pursue in so great a 
crisis. He spoke but a few minutes. His language 
betrayed the deep emotion which filled his patriotic 
breast. He represented what were the views and 
sentiments of his constituents ; stated that they 
accorded with those of the delegations which had with- 
drawn ; that he had been sent by his people to repre- 
sent them in a great National Democratic Convention 
wherein delegates from all the States of the Union could 
sit in harmony and equality ; and that as the Conven- 
tion no longer possessed that character, he and his 
colleague, Mr. Whitely would withdraw, confident that 
their action would be sustained at home. 

When all the seceding delegations had retired, it is 
impossible to portray the dismay of those by whose 
conduct that grave event had been occasioned, and 
when a motion to adjourn was made it was readily 
assented to. 

The excitement outside was intense. Everybody 
asked " how many delegations will withdraw to-morrow ? 
" What will the seceding delegations do ?" The whole 
town was on foot, and unqualified approval of the 
action of the retiring delegates expressed to applauding 
crowds at every street corner. An informal meeting 
of the seceders for consultation was held at St. An- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 417 

drew's Hall the next day, when it was resolved that 
they should assemble at the Military Hall and organize, 
and then await the action of the Convention before they 
determined on their future proceedings. An immense 
mass meeting was held in front of the City Hall, which 
was addressed by the Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, of Missis- 
sippi, Mr. Yancey, and other prominent Democrats, in 
able and stirring speeches. 

On the tenth day of its session, after ineffectual 
balloting, the Convention adjourned to meet at Balti- 
more June 18th. 

Before adjourning, the Virginia delegation had con- 
ferred with the Southern delegates as to the best mode 
of restoring harmony. In consequence, Mr. Howard, 
of Tennessee, stated to the Convention that " he had a 
" proposition to present in behalf of the delegates from 
" Tennessee, whenever, under parliamentary rules, it 
" would be proper to present it." He should propose 
the following : Resolved, That the citizens of the 
United States have an equal right to settle with their 
property in the Territories of the United States ; and 
that under the decision of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, which we recognize as the correct expo- 
sition of the Constitution of the United States, neither 
the rights of persons or property can be destroyed or 
impaired by Congressional or Territorial Legislation. 
Mr. Russell, of Virginia, informed the Convention that 
this resolution, he believed, received the approbation ot 
all the delegations from the Southern States which 
remained in the Convention, and also the approbation 
of the delegation fi'om New York. He was informed 
that there was strength enough to pass it when in order. 
Mr. Howard in vain attempted to get a vote upon it. 



418 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEAOY. 

The friends of Mr. Douglas interposed objections of 
order, and no vote was ever taken upon it, either at 
Charleston or Baltimore. 

That portion of the old Whig party which had pre- 
served a show of organization, and had steadily refused 
to yield to the policy of the Republican party on the 
one hand, and that of the Democratic on the other, met 
in Convention at Baltimore May 9th, assumed the 
name of " Constitutional Union " party, and nominated 
John Bell, for President, and Edward Everett, for 
Vice-President. They adopted no platform of princi- 
ples, presenting their candidates to the people in the 
spirit of Whig Conservatism, and simply upon their 
records as lovers of the Union and respecters of the 
rie;hts of the States. 

The opponents of the Democratic party in Alabama 
believed that, as in 1858, when Mr. Yancey advanced 
the demand for and a repeal of the law making the 
African slave trade piracy, on the ground that in 
pressing it as an issue there would be one more link 
between the Southern man and the Southern man, and 
one more link broken between the Southern man and 
the Northern man, so now in aiding thus materially to 
break up the Democratic party upon the Territorial 
abstraction, by advising and urging the withdrawal of 
the Alabama delegation, the object of the States-Rights 
leaders was to let the administration pass into the hands 
of the Republican party as the final step towards disso- 
lution. They believed that the States-Rights party 
wanted disunion, not because of any practical restric- 
tion of the rights of the Southern citizen, but because 
the desire for a Southern Confederacy, growing out of 
an accumulation of petty defeats upon immaterial and 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 419 

disputed questions of public policy, had become so cher- 
ished, intensified and attractive as to shut from their 
view the weakness of such a Confederacy, the dangers 
of civil war and the horrors of defeat. 

An " Opposition " meeting, in which most of the old 
Whigs participated, was held at Montgomery, June 19. 
It endorsed the principles of the Dred Scott Decision, 
and appointed delegates to a State Convention to 
assemble July 2. Meantime various counties of the 
State had appointed delegates to a " Constitutional 
" Union " Convention to meet at Selma, June 21, for the 
ratification of the nomination of Bell and Everett. In 
this latter Convention appeared the rank and file of 
the old Whig party. This Convention ratified the 
action of the Constitutional Union Convention at Balti- 
more, endorsed the principles of the Dred Scott Decision, 
accepted Mr. Bell upon his record in the Senate, 
and endorsed Mr. Everett upon his action with refer- 
ence to the Compromise of 1850. 

A " States-Rights Opposition " Convention assembled 
at Montgomery, July 2. Delegates were present from 
but seven counties, and among them but few men of 
prominence. They adopted resolutions stating that the 
question of protecting slave property in the Territories 
was the paramount question before the country, and 
that no other party in Alabama except their own had 
avowed in their platform, until a recent day, the duty 
of Congress to afford such protection. Many delegates 
to this Convention believed the time had come for the 
establishment of a party representing a united South, 
and were disposed to act with the seceders from the 
Charleston Convention. The Douglas party having 
preserved the forms and organization of the National 



420 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Democracy, it was hoped that the seceders would now 
unite with the States-Rights opposition in a sectional 
party. Following out the line of the argument they 
had maintained for four years, it was now mooted 
whether this portion of the " States-Rights Opposition " 
should not pronounce for the candidates of the seceders ; 
and so we find them declaring it their duty, " not as 
" Democrats, but merely as determined friends of 
" Southern equality and Southern institutions, and as 
" allies of those who, by placing their nominees upon a 
" platform substantially asserting our own long-cher- 
" ished principles of protection to slave property in the 
" Territories, have given signal proof of their devotion to 
" Southern equaHty and Southern institutions, to support 
" Breckinridge and Lane, if in their letters of acceptance 
" of their nomination, or otherwise, they give their 
'* unqualified sanction to the platform upon which they 
" have been nominated." Mr. Watts moved to amend 
the resolution by a proposition to write to Messrs. Bell 
and Everett, and to support the Constitutional Union 
candidates if they abide by the principles expressed in 
the platform. Upon a vote' by counties, Montgomery 
county voted for Mr. Watts' amendment, and the 
remaining counties against it. In no sense was this a 
representative vote. Its effect, however, was to draw 
fi:om Mr. Bell a fi:action of the old Whigs led by men 
of strength like Judge, Chilton, and Rice. The 
majority of Mr. Breckinridge over his two competitors 
in Alabama was but seven thousand. Had the Whigs 
remained united upon Mr. Bell, it is more than proba- 
ble that a majority of votes in the State would have 
been cast against Mr. Breckinridge. It might be 
difficult to understand how this Opposition Convention 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 421 

could, upon principle, arrive at the conclusion to support 
Mr. BreckiI^ridge to the exclusion of Mr. Bell. On 
all other questions than that of slavery in the Territo- 
ries, their associations and traditions had been with the 
latter rather than the former. Why, then, upon " the 
" paramount question '" could they not give Mr. Bell 
an opportunity to claim their votes by defining his 
position ? The only solution of the movement must 
be found in the profound conviction which had seized 
upon the minds of many hitherto devoted Whigs, that 
any attempt to keep alive a separate organization, 
under whatever name, must prove futile and could only 
embarrass the position of the South. Such a party 
could expect no electoral votes except at the South. 
It was, therefore, in the opinion of the Convention, 
powerless for good, and might be productive of injury. 
Mr. Watts thought differently. In his opinion there 
would probably be no election by the people, and Mr. 
Bell would receive electoral votes sufficient to make 
him one of the three candidates before the House. As 
neither Douglas nor Breckinridge could control the 
House, it was his hope and belief that the discordant 
elements adverse to Mr. Lincoln would finally concen- 
trate upon Mr. Bell. In reply to a letter addressed 
to him by Mr. Watts, Mr. Bell enclosed for his inspec- 
tion certain of his speeches with paragraphs marked, 
stating that these speeches were full and explicit 
answers to the questions asked him. Mr. Watts pub- 
lished a letter, July 30, in which he said : 

" Mr. Bell thus distinctly announces, in my judg- 
" ment, the following propositions — 

" 1 . A distinct repudiation of Wilmot Provisoism. 



422 THE CRADLE OF THE CONPEDERACY. 

*' 2. A distinct repudiation of squatter sovereignty 
" as long ago as 1848. 

" 3. A distinct announcement that the Territories 
"are common property of the States composing the 
" Union, and that the citizens of each State have the 
" right to go into such Territories with their property 
" of every description, and while there to have protec- 
" tion to property and person." 

The Democratic Executive Committee having called 
a convention, that body assemblad at Montgomery 
early in June. On the same day, and at the same 
place, assembled a Douglas Convention. Both bodies 
nominated full electoral tickets, the one endorsing the 
action of its delegates to Charleston and authorizing 
them to meet the seceders at Richmond ; the other 
condemning the secession at Charleston, recognizing 
the Douglas wing as the proper organized National 
Convention, and appointing delegates to act with that 
Convention at Baltimore. 

On the 18th of June the Douglas fragment of the 
Democratic Convention met at Baltimore. The State 
of New York was now ready to adopt the resolution of 
Mr. Howard, and had the seceders taken their seats 
the Convention and party might have harmonized. 
The seceders adjourned from Richmond to Baltimore, 
but the first act of the Douglas men was to declare the 
seats of the seceders vacant, and to admit the new dele- 
gates who had been lately appointed b}' Douglas Con- 
ventions. Thereupon Virginia, North Carolina, Ten- 
nessee, Kentucky, Maryland, California, Oregon, and 
Arkansas withdrew from the Convention and joined the 
seceders. They were accompanied by Mr. Cushino, 
president of the Convention, and five more of the 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDEEAOY. 423 

Massachusetts delegates. The seceders now represented 
twenty States — and all that were certain to give Demo- 
cratic majorities. 

After the adoption by the seceders of the majority 
report which had been presented at Charleston, and 
the nomination of Mr. Breckinridge, loud calls were 
made for Mr. Yancey. Amidst great applause that 
gentleman ascended the platform and addressed the 
Convention with his usual force and fire. Rehearsing 
the events which had transpired, and defending the 
principles of the majority report as the only basis of a 
Constitutional Union founded on the equality of the 
States, he said : 

" I congratulate you, Mr. President, the representa- 
" tive of the National States-Rights Democracy, and 
'•' you, venerable gentlemen, who sit here as the repre- 
" sentatives of your several sovereign States, and 
" gentlemen, who are the delegates of the Democracy — 
" you, who are the stern and true fiiends of the old- 
" fashioned National Democracy, that there is j'-et in 
" existence an organization pledged to uphold and 
'^ revere our beloved Constitution, and through it to 
" uphold the Union. [Applause.] Accept these con- 
" gratulations at the hands of one who has, through the 
" assiduous and wily influence of our common enemies, 
" acquired a reputation for being factious and dismp- 
" tionary — for being a disunionist. Accept that 
'^ congratulation at the hands of one who, some nine or 
'" ten years ago, desired and endeavored to obtain a 
" disruption of this Union, because he beheved then, as 
'* he beheves now, that there was a then existing cause 
" why that Union should have been dissolved — because 
" the Constitution had been violated in the admission of 



424 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" California into the Union upon the principle of 
" ' squatter sovereignty,' and because the internal slave 
"trade between the District of Columbia and the 
" States had been destroyed by Congressional legisla- 
" tion, by that act initiating the great policy of abolition. 
" I went before the people of the State of Alabama, 
" and asked of them if they would secede from a 
" Union that had thus forgotten to observe its pledges. 
" She thought it fit in her wisdom to dechne, and voted 
" down the seceding party. From that day to this I 
"have urged no measure of dissolution, but I have 
" bowed in submission to the will of the State, to which 
" I owe my allegiance. From that day to this, under 
" all these wrongs, I have not urged them as a sufficient 
" cause why the Union shall be dissolved — and though 
" injustice and wrong has since been done to my 
" section, yet they are not of that character which, of 
" themselves, call for disunion. And when it has been 
" stated, for the purpose of injuring the cause with 
" which I am connected, that I am urging my friends 
" to disunion, and to the disruption of the Democratic 
" party, that has been stated that is utterly false as an 
" inference and false in itself [Applause.] There is 
" nothing that I have done or said in the progress of 
" measures leading to organization for this canvass, 
" nothing that actuates me, no motive of mine that can, 
" with fairness, be so construed. Whenever the time 
" comes in which a wrong shall be done to the section 
" in which I live ; which is palpably and clearly done 
" with a view of wronging that section — a wrong that 
" shall effect its honor and equality, I shall endeavor to 
"be, as I was in 1851, among the first to raise the 
" banner of State secession. Until cause for that event 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY 425 

" occurs, I here and elsewhere, shall rally under the 
" banner of the Democracy and of the Constitution." 
[Applause.] 

It is interesting in this connection to recall an inci- 
dent as illustrating how utterly careless were illustrious 
politicians as to the question over which they were 
dividing parties and imperiling the country In 
passing through Washington Mr. Yancey was the guest 
of Mr. PuGH, a member of Congress from Alabama. 
While at Mr. Pugh's house he was visited by Mr. S. 
S. Baxter, of Tenu., and H. W. Fisher, of Virginia, 
both of whom in published letters afterwards, testified 
to the correctness of the conversation which occured 
between themselves and Mr. Geo. JS. Sanders, of New 
York, who stepped in during their visit. Mr. Sanders 
was a shrewd politician of some note, and had held the 
important position of Consul to London under President 
Pierce. Mr. Yancey said the Vice-Presidency had 
been offered him by the friends of Mr. Douglas if he 
would bring about a reconciliation between the factions. 
Mr. Sanders had made the offer, it was said, with the 
knowledge and consent of Mr. Douglas. During this 
conversation Mr. Sanders urged Mr. Yancey to accept, 
and suggested that Mr. Douglas would die in six 
months after his inauguration, when the whole question 
would be solved. Mr. Fisher repeated this conversa- 
tion in a public speech at Baltimore, and his statement 
was not denied. 



CHA^PTEH XVI. 



The Canvass in Alabama — Assaults upon Yancey — Posi- 
tion of the Three Contestants — Yancey'' s Canvass of the 
West and North — His Arrival at Memphis — Reception 
at KnoxmUe — Speech at Washimjton — Attempted Fu- 
sion in JSfew York — His Speech in Faneuil Hall— At 
Lexinyton — At New Orleans — Return of Yayicey and 
Visit of Douglas to Montgomery^ Etc., Etc. 



MrPresldent: "Jf you wish to put a stop to cheering and applause 
upon this floor, you must stop Mr. Yancey from speaking."— [Rynders in 
the Charleston Convention. 

" Your policy in this great crisis of a final struggle between the South 
and its foes is mad and suicidal in the last degree. It is to risk everything 
for nothing. It is to anniliilate the only living power that can defend 
us, and to consummate a ruin of Southern hopes and prospects, under 
which your own favorite abstraction ot ' piotectlon ' will be the first and 
deepest buried. Do you expect to obtain congressional protection for 
slavery in the Territories by electing William H. Seward President?"— 
[Public Letter of John Forsyth. 

The political campaign was now opened. The Whig 
candidates for Presidential Electors attacked the Doug- 
las Democracy because of their squatter sovereignty 
principles, and the Breckinridge Democracy because of 
their disunion tendencies. In Alabama the opinions 
and declarations of Mr. Yancey became the special 
target for the opposition. It was argued that Mr. 
Yancey was a pronounced secessionist in 1851, and 
that he was still a disunionist. It was true he now 
denied that he was a disunionist ; but he made the 
same denial then. Then it was that he organized and 
harangued the States-Rights Associations ; but yester- 
day he was organizing and harangueing the Leagues of 



428 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

United Southerners. Ten years ago he was for in- 
structing the South in the principles of States-Rights, 
and admonishing them not to be trammelled by ties of 
parties. Two years ago he was for instructing the 
Southern mind in the same direction, for firing the 
Southern heart and precipitating the cotton States into 
revolution. This being precipitated into revolution 
could mean nothing more nor less than separate State 
secession upon the election of a RepubUcan President. 
In his speech at the Commercial Convention, Mr. 
Yancey had said that the election of a President under 
the forms of the Constitution by the RepubHcan party, 
would not of itself justify secession ; and he had said 
in his Baltimore speech that there had been no injustice 
and wrong since 1850 which would justify disunion. 
The principles of the States-Rights party were those of 
the Virginia resolutions of '98, which declared that the 
injustice and wrong which authorized secession on the 
part of a State, must be " a deliberate, palpable and 
"dangerous exercise of powers not granted by the 
" compact.*' The power of electing such a President 
as they prefer, is one of those undisputed powers which 
could not be denied to the States. Alabama, there- 
fore, had no justification to secede simply upon the 
election of a Republican President, and well had Mr. 
Yancey spoken of such a purpose as "revolution." 
She, together with the entire South, declared by large 
majorities that the injustice and wrong of the Compro- 
mise Measures of 1850 were not sufficient cause, and 
Mr. Yancey had publicly declared that since that day 
the injustice and wrong done his section was not sulfi- 
cient to justify disunion. Such being the case, said 
the Unionists, it would seem the duty of patriots, the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 429 

interest of men who yearn for continued peace and 
prosperity, that the State should not be dragged into 
the suicidal policy of South Carolina, that the people of 
Alabama were in danger, was evidenced by the actions 
and schemes of Mr. Yancey and his peculiar friends. 
He had brought about Ihe disruption of the Charleston 
Convention by procuring from the Alabama Democratic 
Convention instructions that delegates should withdraw 
in a certain contingency. He had been largely instru- 
mental in obtaining from the General Assembly a call 
for a State Convention in the event of Lincoln's elec- 
tion, and a declaration that his administration would be 
resisted. He had fired the Southern heart by obtain- 
ing this declaration for disunion from the representatives 
of the people, and he was now for precipitating the 
State into secession. He ' wanted no delay, no reflec- 
tion, no waiting for co-operative action. Co-operation 
would bring delay, and delay would cool the passions 
and fortify reason. Success for his schemes depended 
upon precipitation, and precipitation would result in 
ruin. 

The old Whig leaders believed that there was a pos- 
sibility of the election of Mr. Bell by the people. 
There was certainly no hope for the election of Mr. 
Douglas or Mr. Breckinridge. It was probable that 
the names of Lincoln, Bell, and Breckinridge would 
go to the House. In that event Mr. Bell had an 
excellent chance of being put into the Presidency as a 
compromise man, since the Douglas aind Lincoln Rep- 
resentatives would prefer to elect him before the 4 th of 
March rather than see the President of the Senate 
assume the Presidency of the United States after that 
day. Gen. Clanton, everywhere throughout the Dis- 



430 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY. 

trict, the same old District which had so often witnessed 
the defeat of the States-Rights party, held that, should 
Mr. Lestoln be elected, his administration ought to be 
submitted to until it committed some unconstitutional 
act. He showed that the President could do nothing 
unless backed by Congress, that the Senate would be 
against him, and in all probability the House also, and 
that the Supreme Court were against his pohtical views. 
Lincoln would be utterly powerless if elected. Any 
appointment he might make must be confirmed by a 
Democratic Senate ; why, then, need we apprehend 
any danger from a President who would have the sup- 
port of neither a majority of the voters of the Union 
nor of any of the Departments of the Government ? 
Was this the powerless object before which the Union 
must be rent in twain ? This was not submission to 
Black Republican rule, as it was termed. It was obedi- 
ence to the Constitution and submission to the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, which would still be, for 
all practical purposes, in the hands of the South, 
through the preponderance of Southern Senators among 
those who would be in opposition to Mr. Lincoln. 

Mr. John F. Conoley, the Douglas elector for the 
Third District, maintained that the nomination of Mr. 
Douglas was the only regular Democratic nomination. 
Why, he argued, had the opponents of Mr. Douglas 
insisted upon an explanatory clause to the Cincinnati 
platform ? Had not the Supreme Court sufficiently 
explained what the Cincinnati platform meant by non- 
intervention ? Mr. Yancey, in his powerful argument 
at Charleston, had proved beyond the power of refuta- 
tion, that "squatter sovereignt}'" was not in the Kansas 
Bill. By reference to the Died Scott case, he had 



THE CRADLE OF THE COKFEDEEACY. 431 

also proved that it could not by any 'possibility be in 
any other Territorial Bill. By the same argument he 
had showed that it could not be in the Cincinnati 
platform. Then why had he insisted upon a change of 
platform even to the disruption of the party and the 
Union ? Was it because a fraction of the party 
denied the construction of the Court ? That faction 
could hardly cast a Democratic electoral vote. It was 
too weak and impotent to justify alarm. But granting 
that the election of Douglas would enure to the success 
of what is known as squatter sovereignty, was there 
an}i;hing alarming in that doctrine ? Under it, it was 
admitted, slaver}'' had an unrestricted right of expan- 
sion and would go wherever the people wanted it. 
Squatters had earned it to Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, without any 
law to protect it, and to Texas against a law prohibit- 
ing it. Under this doctrine it could and would be 
carried to all countries where climate, soil, productions 
and population would allow. Non-intervention is thus 
regulated by natui^al laws, and no Act of Congress could 
csltty it into any Territory against those laws. If we 
have not the population to compete with the North in 
the colonization of Territories, no Act of Congress 
could cure the difficulty. What was the objection to 
Douglas '? Was it that the nomination was not by a 
two-thu'ds vote ? Mr. Douglas received more than 
two thirds of those who voted. Never in the histor}- of 
Democratic Conventions had it been held that the 
candidate should receive a number equal to two-thirds 
of all the electoral votes. Two-thirds of a House means 
two-thii'ds of the voting members, and not two-thirds of 
all the members. Was the objection to the platform ? 



432 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

The platform was the same that was considered broad 
enough in 1856 for the whole Union. Was the objec- 
tion to the man who led the ticket ? If Mr. Douglas 
had offended, it was alone upon the question how far a 
territorial legislature may constitutionally impair the 
right or usefulness of any kind of property by any 
system of laws they may enact. This point of differ- 
ence between Mr. Douglas and others did not involve 
a question of the equality of the States in the Union or 
any principle essential to our security. The people of 
the Territory were the ultimate disposers of the whole 
question. They could manage it better than Congress 
could. Mr. DojQLAS was for removing the slavery 
agitation from the halls of Congress. His opponents 
were for continuing and increasing the agitation by 
calling upon those in Congress whose prejudices were all 
against slavery, to enable them in enacting slave codes. 
Could there be peace when such demands were made 
by the South ? The seceders knew that such demands 
would be rejected, and that the rejection would be made 
the pretence for disunion. There was no mode of 
quieting the slavery question or securing peace to the 
country except by the policy of Mr. Douglas. So 
spoke the candidates for the Electoral College. 

During the progress of the canvass it became appa- 
rent that Mr. Lincoln would be elected unless the States 
of New York and Pennsylvania could be carried against 
him by a fusion of all the Conservative elements. The 
Republicans, in order to prevent such fusion, and to 
weaken the strength of Mr. Breckinridge, made free 
use of the name, opinions and published sentiments of 
Mr. Yancey. The newspapers had published what pur- 
ported to be a copy of the constitution of the *' League 



THE CBADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 433 

" of United Southerners," which declared that its object 
was to break up the Union. Mr. Yancey thereupon 
wrote a letter to the Democracy of Tennessee, July 1 9, 
presenting a true copy of the League Constitution, and 
stating that its declared object was to preserve the 
rights of the South in the Union, or failing in that, 
''a prompt resistance on the next aggression." He 
stated that the establishment of the League had been 
first recommended by the Advertiser newspaper of Mont- 
gomery, that its first meeting had been organized by 
himself, Chas. G. Gunter, and J. C. B. Mitchell of that 
place, that but three chapters had ever been formed ; 
that its sessions were open, and that the people, not 
approving, it had long since been discontinued. The 
notable part of this letter is the admission by Mr. 
Yancey that, while not favoring disunion in 1858, he 
was for prompt resistance on the next aggression ; and 
yet at Baltimore he had asserted that nothing had 
occurred since 1858 to justify secession, and at the 
Commercial Convention he had declared that the elec- 
tion of a RepubHcan President would not alone jus- 
tify it.. 

The important part which Yancey had played at 
the Convention which had nominated Mr. Breckinridge, 
and the wide-spread denunciations of him as a disun- 
ionist at the North, induced his party friends to urge 
upon him the duty of making addresses at as many of 
the prominent cities as time would permit. After sev- 
eral addresses in Alabama among those who had been 
accustomed to hear him, his first speech outside of the 
State was made at Memphis. During the day, upon the 
evening of which he was to address the people there, 
the railroad trains and country road wagons and car- 



434 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

riages poured into the city a host of people, some to 
applaud as a patriot, eome to hiss as a traitor, the 
most widely criticised man in the Union. The excite- 
ment was intense. Threats to mob him was indulged 
in openly by heated partisans, and the audience 
appeared so largely his enemy that many of his friends 
advised him not to speak. There never was a braver 
man than Yancey. There never was a crowd which 
could silence or intimidate him. There never was a 
passion-tossed audience which he could not curb or 
control. On this occasion the immense audience, sup- 
posed to be greatly against him, cheered and jeered, 
swayed to and fro and interrupted his first sentences 
with impertinent and insolent interjections. The orator 
not for a moment lost temper or countenance. He 
would not notice that the confusion was anything 
unusual for a large audience. Soon his musical voice 
attracted attention, and then his graceful gesticulation ; 
then a rounded period brought applause from those 
nearest him. Then silence and attention spread a little 
farther, and a little farther, until before he had been 
speaking fifteen minutes the vast concourse was per- 
fectly silent, and following breathless his rapid flights 
of declamation and irresistible rush of argument. At 
the close of each sentence a ripple of cheers would 
follow, and ever and anon a roar of applause would 
make the welkin ring. For four hours he held that 
audience spell-bound, and at last when his magnificent 
peroration struck the blood of every listener with the 
chill of pleasure and admiration, and the orator had 
closed, a universal shout broke out — '' Go on ! Go on ! 
" We can listen to you until the sun rises !" 

Mr. Yancey left Montgomery about the middle of 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 435 

September upon a tour to the North. After speaking 
at KiNQSToy, Ga., with his usual power, he proceeded to 
Knoxville, the hot-bed of Unionism in East Tennessee. 
There he addressed an audience of not less than three 
thousand people, defending his cause with such signal 
ability as to deeply impress all who heard him, of 
whatever shade of opinion. To break the force of 
his argument, and just before he appeared ready to 
conclude, an incident occurred which well illustrates the 
temper of the times. The Knoxville Register, de- 
scribing the events of the day, says : 

At this stage (of Mr. Yancey's speech) a voice, Mr. 
Manley, asked, what would you do if Lincoln was 
elected President? 

Yancey — Come upon the stand. 

Mr. Manley went up and took his seat. 

Mr. Yancey said he received twelve years of his 
education in New England, and there learned the 
Yankee mode of answering questions, and said to Mr. 
M. I'll answer your question by asking another. 

Manley- -Ask it. 

Yancey — Who are you in favor of for President ? 

Manley — John Bell. 

Yancey — Will you endorse what John Bell has said 
on breaking up the Union 1 

Manley — iSaid he had propounded the question at 
the request of others. 

Mr. Yancey asked their names. A note was handed 
to him signed S. R. Rogers, Wm. Rogers, Jno. M. 
Fleming, W. G. Brownlow, and 0. P. Temple. He 
called out the names of these gentlemen and requested 
them to come on 'the stand with him. After some 
little delay they appeared on the stand as requested. 



436 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Mr. Yancey asked them who they were in favor of 
for President. All answered — John Bell. He then 
repeated the question he had propounded to Mr. i:.Can- 
ley, and requested an answer from each. 

Col. Temple — Said Bell had always been a Union 
man ; though some Breckinridge men had, by garbled 
extracts from his speeches, sought to create a different 
impression. Thus recognizing Mr. Bell, he was pre- 
pared to endorse his position properly entrusted. He 
did not mean to charge Mr. Yancey with garbling, etc. 

Yancey — Said he did not suppose any gentleman 
would try to insult him on the stand, and he did not 
regard Mr. Temple's remarks as applying to him, or he 
would have replied in a different manner. 

Mr. Brownlow, in answer to the question, said yes, 
and added — I propose when the Secessionists go to 
Washington to dethrone Lincoln, I am for seizing a 
bayonet and forming an army to resist such attack, and 
they shall walk over my dead body on their way. 

S. R. Rogers endorses Mr. Brownlow's position. 

J. M. Fleming — If Mr. Bell had been interrogated 
on this point, he would endorse his answer. 

When the question was asked Wm. Rogers, Mr. 
Brownlow said, we all answer in the affirmative. 

Yancey — I asked him. I suppose he knows better 
than you, unless you have agreed on a stereotyped 
answer. 

Brownlow — No, we have not been initiated into your 
League. 

Yancey — No, or you would have been a better 
Southern man. 

Mr. Yancey then read an extract from John Bell's 
speech (the extract published a short time since in the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 437 

Register), and said, now, gentlemen, I will answer your 
question, and answered it in the following words : 

I now proceed to answer this question, although 
unable to perceive in what manner my future act in 
Alabama can, in the least degree, affect your votes 
here, on the question of the election of a President. 

By an act of the General Assembly in Alabama, 
passed last winter, it is made the duty of the Gov- 
ernor, in the event a Black Republican shall be elected 
President, in a certain period after he ascertains it, 
(thirty days I believe) to make proclamation of the 
fact — and that an election shall then be held by the 
people to elect delegates to a Convention of the people 
of the State, which Convention will consider what the 
sovereignty and wrongs done the State require at its 
hands. 

As I said to you in the earlier part of my speech, I am 
a States-Rights man — believing in the right of a State 
to command the allegiance and obedience of its citizens, 
and therefore that my allegiance is first due to my 
State. I do not believe in exercising the individual 
natural right of rebellion, until both States as well as 
Federal (Jonstitutions are broken, and my rights are 
destroyed. If the Federal Constitution shall be broken 
and destroyed by the usurpation of a Higher Law 
faction, my right to resist is subordinate to my allegi- 
ance to my State Constitution. As an individual, 
therefore, I shall not rebel against such an election, for 
that would he rebellion also against tny own State 
authority. But whatever course Alabama may take, 
that course I shall be bound by as a citizen, and if it 
is to acquiesce, I shall do so — if it is to secede, I shall 
cast my fortunes with that of the State. If the Con- 



438 THE CRADLE 01? TfiE CONFEDERACY. 

vention shall see fit to go into a consultation with the 
other Southern States, and act as they agree, I shall 
abide by that action. If it shall decide to demand new 
guaranties for its rights, before it will remain longer in 
the Union, I shall acquiesce in that. In fine, as I am 
bound by, so shall I acquiesce in all that my State may 
decide to do. 

If my State resists, I shall go with her ; and if I 
meet this gentleman (pointing to Mr. Brownlow), mar- 
shaled with his bayonet to oppose us, I'll plunge my 
bayonet to the hilt through and through his heart and 
feel no compunctions for the act, and thank my God 
my country has been freed from such a foe. 1'his 
man, forgetful of his nativity, had uttered fratricidal 
sentiments of hostility towards men of the South who 
differ with him upon their views of their rights and the 
time and manner in which they should be asserted and 
supported, but who, if they err in judgment, err on the 
side of patriotism and through devotion to their native 
land. If Providence, in pity, refrain sending its thun- 
derbolt, crushing this old oak tree, whose boughs now 
shelter us, and which has lifted its head to heaven since 
the days of Washington, and our revolutionary sires — 
he, but one individual of the South, might safely leave 
the author of such sentiments to the reproaches of his 
own conscience and the retributive justice which, sooner 
or later, ever overtakes those who oppose their country's 
weal. He recognized those who came on the stand as 
gentlemen, and he bore no personal mahce towards 
them. He hoped no mihtia office would be conferred 
on this gentleman (pointing to Mr. Brownlow.) He 
had better preach. 

He regretted that he had been diverted fi'om words 



l?Hfi CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 43^ 

of peace through interruption. He called it an inter- 
ruption, but in one sense, and that not an offensive one. 
He expressed his thanks to the people for their kind- 
ness and courtesy. He also thanked the Bell men who 
were gentlemen, and those not gentlemen. 

He knew the power of the press, the base slanders it 
had uttered against him, and between now and the end 
of the canvass, they would still go where his voice could 
not reach. Their lies were like a scrubby quarter 
nag, while Truth was a thorough bred four-mile horse. 
On a short race the quarter nag was always successful, 
but thorough bred Truth was always victorious in a 
long race. 

A few other eloquent and complimentary remarks 
to the ladies, Mr. Yancey closed. At the conclusion 
of his remarks Mr. Brownlow took the stand, and said 
in substance that the gentleman had spoken of him as 
a parson, and suggested his duty in that capacity. He 
had read some Scripture, and he would say to the gen- 
tleman, get thee behind me, Satan. He had heard the 
gentleman in a whisper ask a gentleman on the stand 
if that was not the parson, referring to the speaker. 
The gentleman said yes. While he was on the subject 
of parsons, the gentleman should have referred to the 
fact that the gentlemiin of whom he asked the question 
(Rev. Isaac Lewis) was a Federal office-holder, as was 
another parson present, and that the Democrats had 
on their State ticket, and as an Elector for this District, 
two more parsons, who only diifered with him in the 
fact that they had been silenced for lying. 

He declined speaking any more, but would speak 
out through his paper. 



440 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Mr. Yancey said, if you have anything to say, say it 
here before me like a man. 

The crowd called again for Mr. Yancey. He said, 
gentlemen, you cannot expect me to dignify such a 
speech with a reply. 

The State of Virginia, while generally Democratic, 
had been so uncertain at all times, that now it was 
behoved that the Douglas party would take sufficient 
votes from the regular Democratic Electoral ticket to 
give her to Mr. Bell. It was deemed advisable that 
Mr. Yancey should speak at Richmond. Remain- 
ing there one night he spoke to an immense audience 
with his usual effect. Declining invitations which 
came to him from all parts of Virginia — a State which 
remembered the brilliant words he uttered when he 
received at its Capitol the field-glass of George Wash- 
ington, presented to him by the ladies of the Mount 
Vernon Association a few years before — he hastened 
to Washington. Wherever he went the crowds which 
poured forth to meet him increased in numbers. So 
great had become the fame of his eloquence and power, 
that the largest buildings could not contain those that 
flocked to hear him. To one of these mighty hosts at 
the Capital of the Union, he spoke as follows : 

" I say to you, then, though we deprecate disun- 
" ion, we will have the Union of our fathers. It has 
" been said that the South has aggressed upon the 
" North. When and where has my people ever 
" aggressed upon the people of any other section ? 
" When and where has any Southern statesman pro- 
" posed a wrong to be done to the West, the North- 
" west, the East, or the Northeast ?" 

A voice — •" Never." 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 441 

Mr. Yancey — " Never. History will proclaim it. 
" This age proclaims it. Our enemies will proclaim it 
" by their silence when we defy them to answer the 
" question. 

" Ours, then, is a position of defence within the 
" limits of the Constitution. We uphold its banner. 
" We intend to defend its principles. We ask only 
" equal rights in our common Government. We ask 
" protection for these rights in our common Govern- 
" ment. Nothing more, and, so help me God, we will 
" submit to nothing less." [Applause.] 

" Now, my fellow-citizens, I do not intend to address 
" you at length to-night. I am wearied, having trav- 
" eled all night, and having been detained on the way 
" by an accident on the railroad. I have spoken four 
" times this week, and once I had the modesty to 
" address an audience four hours. [A voice — ' Give 
" us four hours more to-night.'] I, therefore, have no 
"physical ability to detain you any longer to-night. 
'^ I conceive that you have met here to-night not from 
" any special re.spect to an individual, but that you 
" have recognized me as one earnestly striving to 
" advance the cause of the Constitution ; and in that 
" spirit, and in that only, have shown your respect for 
" the cause of Democracy — something that is deserv- 
" ing of that respect — for that I most sincerely thank 
" you. I trust that I shall never deserve a want of 
." respect at your hands, or at those of any one else, by 
" proposing aggression on any, or by proposing any 
" measure not in accordance with a strict construction 
" of the Constitution." 

A voice — " What will the South do in the event of 
" Lincoln's election V 



442 THE CRADLE OP THE CONPEl)ERACY. 

Mr. Yancey — " 1 don't know what she will do ; but 
" I will say to you — I put it to you, my fi-iend. Now 
" if you live in a slave-holding State — " 

The same voice — " I do, sir." 

Mr. Yancey — " Well, then, if John Brown commits 
" a raid on that State while in the peace of God, and 
" while in the peace of the country, under the peace of 
" the Constitution that is supposed to protect it — if he 
"' comes with pike, with musket, and "bayonet, and 
" cannon ; if he slaughter an inoffensive people ; if his 
" myrmidons are scattered all over our country, where 
" it is supposed rests this institution which is so unpal- 
" atable, inciting our slaves to midnight arson, to mid- 
" night murder, and to midnight insurrection against 
" the sparsely scattered white people ; if the brother- 
" hood of this nation shall be broken up, and the com- 
" mon citizenship shall be ignored ; if the protection 
" that is due from every citizen to every other citizen 
" shall be no longer afforded ; if, in the place of it, a 
" wild and bloodthirsty spirit — not of revenge, for 
" we have done no wrong to be revenged — but a 
" bloodthirsty spuit of assassination, of murder, and 
" of wrong takes its place, and we find scattered 
" throughout all our borders these people, and we find 
"^ the midnight skies hghted up by the fires of our 
" dwellings, and the wells from which we hourly drink 
'' poisoned by strychnine ; and our wives and our 
" children, when we are away at our business, are found 
" murdered by our hearthstones, my answer, my fiiend, 
" is in these w ords : What would i/ou do ?" [Loud 
applause.] 

A voice — " I would stop him before he got that far." 

Mr. Yancey — " 1 believe that the God of hberty, to 



^Hil CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 443 

" whom it is our duty at all times to pray ; He who 
" holds in his hands the very destinies of nations — 
" will so turn the hearts of our people that such an 
" event shall not happen." 

A voice — " Amen." 

Mr. Yancey — " For myself, I do hope that in the 
" Northern States, which hold this question in their 
" hands, in some way a feeling of justice will be aroused 
" in the minds of the people, and they will consider 
" this matter, and prevent this dire result. As for the 
" South, we are in a minority. We cannot prevent it, 
" however much we may desire to do so. The North 
" is now the dominant section of this country. It has 
''183 electoral votes to our 120. It is for them to 
" say what is to be our destiny within this Govern- 
" ment. It is not, thank God, for the North to say 
" what shall be the destiny of Southern freemen. 
" [' Good,' and applause.] That we hold in our own 
" hands. Our prosperity, our safety, our institutions 
" do not depend upon any vote the North may give in 
" this matter as long as we are true to ourselves. They 
" are safe, though the Constitution may be rent asunder. 
" We prefer our protection and our defence within the 
" lines of the Government of Washington and Jelierson 
" and of Hancock, but if it is not given to us, we know 
" that we have freedom within our own breasts. But 
" within this Union, this Union must be preserved by 
" Northern votes. 

"" The issue is now left with the North, and it is ten- 
" dered her to save the Union and the Constitution by 
" putting down the Black Republican party." [Good.] 

The October elections had taken place in Pennsyl- 
vania, and that great State had pronounced for the 



444 THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

Republican party. There was now no hope of pre- 
venting the election of Mr. Lincoln except by bringing 
about a fusion between the Douglas and Breckinridge 
parties of New York. To that end Mr. Yancey visited 
New York, and approved of the fusion, which was suc- 
cessfully accomplished. The State of New York cast 
thirty-five electoral votes. The entire electoral vote 
by which Mr. Lincoln was elected was 180 ; the vote 
for all the other candidates was 123. Had New York 
voted for Douglas instead of for Lincoln, the vote would 
have been 158 against the latter, and only 145 
in his favor. The decision would have gone to Con- 
gress, and either Mr. Bell or Gen. Lane would have 
become President. The vote of New York was 
362,000 for Lincoln and 312,000 for the fusion 
ticket. Had the compromise been effected at an earlier 
day, there can be no doubt that New York would 
never have cast her vote for Lincoln. Just here, the 
reviewer of the events of that day pauses to enquire 
how it was possible to bring about a fusion at New 
York when the damage was already done, and it was 
not possible to bring it about at Charleston or Balti- 
more. How could Mr. Yancey succumb to policy in 
October when be had scorned to listen to it in April 
and June ? 

It was the purpose of the Republicans to drive Mr. 
Yancey to the wall upon the question whether he 
favored disunion in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election. 
His position upon that question would materially affect 
the floating vote in the city of New York. If he 
should say that he would favor disunion in that event, 
the Republicans would denounce the fusion ticket as 
composed partly of disunionists, and would appeal to 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 445 

the pride of the Union men to defy such threats. If 
he should say he would not favor such a movement he 
would repudiate the declaration of the General Assem- 
bly of his State and his own present wishes and inten- 
tions. Speaking in the grand hall of Coopers Institute 
to such a mass of men as only New York can present 
to a popular public orator, he said : 

" I have been asked here to-night certain questions, 
" which I deem it right to answer now, at the present. 
" One of these questions is, ' Would you consider the 
" election of Abraham Lincoln as President a sufficient 
"• cause to warrant the South in seceding from the 
" Union V 1'he second is, ' Whether, in the case of 
" Mr. Lincoln being elected, and any of the States 
" attempted to secede, would you support the General 
" Government and the other States in maintaining the 
" integrity of the Union V The fii'st question is a 
" speculation — a political speculation, at that. It has 
" nothing to do with the canvass. I am here, however, 
" aiding you to prevent such a calamity. I am hon- 
" estly endeavoring to maintain the integrity of the 
'• Government and the safety of the Union at the ballot- 
" box [Applause.] I am here to aid you in trying 
" to prevent the election of Abraham Lincoln, the 
" author of the irrepressible conflict ; and if others as 
"faithfully do their duty, he will never be elected. 
" [Applause.] I am asked, and have been asked 
" before, whether I consider the election of Lincoln 
" would be a just cause for the secession of the South- 
" ern States ? That is a matter to come after the ballot- 
"box. [Cheers and derisive laughter, and cries of 
" ' Answer the question.'] Be quiet, gentlemen. Hear 
" me, hear me. [Great excitement and tumult — cries 



44H THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" of ' Order, order,' from the platform.] Don't be im- 
'^ patient, gentlemen. [Increasing disorder,] Don't 
" be impatient, and above all things keep your temper. 
[Laughter and applause.] This is not the time to fight, 
" certainly. [Laughter.] This is a time to vote, and 
" to consider how to vote." 

A voice — " Let us have an answer to the question." 

Mr. Yancey — " You are impatient, my friend. What 
" is the matter with you ?" 

An excited individual on the platform — " Put him 
" out." 

Mr. Yancey — " If gentlemen are so desirous of know- 
" ing my opinions, they ought to abide by my decisions 
" when they are uttered. [Cheers.] This thing of 
" asking advice of a man and then not taking his 
" advice, is a monstrous poor way of getting along. 
" Now, I am going to say this about it. This question 
" that is put to me is a speculation on the future. It is 
" what I consider would happen in the event of some- 
" thing else happening. I hope to God that that will 
" never happen, and that the speculation will never 
" come to a head. [Applause.] I am no candidate 
" for the Presidency, my friends who wrote these ques- 
" tions, though some of you seem to have thought so, 
"judging from the manner in which you have treated 
" me and Mr. Breckinridge. I am no candidate for 
" any office, and I do not want your vote. But I would 
" like to advise with you and get you to vote for a 
" good man — for any man, I do not care who it is, 
" excepting one of the irrepressible conflict men. [Up- 
"roarous applause] In the first place, there is no 
" such thing as the South seceding. I do not know 
" how she would go about it. [Cries of ' Good,' and 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 447 

" loud cheers.] There is such a thing as a State sece- 
" ding ; but the South seceding is a thing which I 
" cannot comprehend. I do not know how the South 
" would go about it. I do not think it could ever 
" happen ; and, therefore, I have no answer to give as 
" to what the South should do. Now, then, I am a 
" citizen of the State of Alabama. I am what is called 
" a States-Rights man. [Cheers.] I believe in the 
" rights of my State. The Constitution of my country 
" tells me that certain powers were given to the General 
" Government, and that all which were not expressly 
" given, or were not necessary to carry out the powers 
" granted, were reserved to the States and to the people 
" of the States. My State has reserved powers and 
" reserved rights, and I believe in the right of seces- 
" sion. [Excited cries of ' Good.'] Virginia and New 
" York were parties to that compact. When the ques- 
" tion was presented, the State of Virginia expressed 
" her wiUingness to join under the compact. The 
" State of New York also did so through her con- 
" vention. 

" It was provided that if nine States assented, it 
" would be a government for those nine, and for all the 
" States that would sign the compact. Therefore, the 
" compact was a compact between the States mutually 
" assenting : wilHngly assenting. If any dissented there 
'' was no proposition to force them into the Union. 
" Therefore, I believe in the right of a State to go out 
" of the Union if she thinks proper. The State of Ala- 
"bama, in her last General Assembly, passed a law 
" requiring the Governor, in the event of a Black Repub- 
*' lican being elected President of the United States, to 
** convene, within so many days after he ascertained 



448 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" that fact, a convention of the people of the State, for 
" the purpose of considering the question which is here 
" presented to me. It is a question for the decision of 
" my State — I cannot decide it. As one of the citizens 
"of Alabama, I shall abide by the decisions of my 
" State. If she goes out, I go with her. If she 
" remains in, I remain with her. I cannot do otherwise. 
" [Laughter and cheers.] It is a grave question, but 
" one which I hope God, in His Providence, will keep 
" me from considering, by the safety of this Govern- 
" ment in the election of some man opposed to the 
" ' irrepressible conflict party. [Cheers.] But when 
" the time comes for me to make up my mind, I will 
" have deliberate consultation with my fellow-citizens in 
" Alabama. You in New York have nothing to do 
" with it ; nothing. Whatever deliberations you choose 
" to have, as citizens of New York, on the fate of your 
" State, will be for yourselves. I have no interest in 
" that question except incidentally, and have no right 
" to advise with you or say anything to you about it. 
" But upon this Presidential question I have a common 
" interest with you, because it is the election of one to 
" administer the Government for the next four years — 
" for my State as well as yours. Therefore it is a 
" common question, about which I can consult with you. 
*' But whether my State or any other State will go out 
" of the Union, is a question which it will be for that 
" State itself to determine. It is not to be determined 
" by arguing it before the election. It would be a grave 
" matter for me to commit myself here, to a crowd in 
" New York, to any policy that might be influenced by 
" after events, by surrounding circumstances, by the 
" expressed sympathies of large majorities of the people 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 449 

" of New York or other States with the South. For 
" me here, merely to gratify some political antagonist, 
" to express my opinion on that point would be folly ; 
" it is the wildest folly to expect I will. That opinion 
" will be rendered to the people of my State whenever 
" they ask for it. [An individual on the platform — 
" ' Three cheers for the answer.'] Now, I am asked 
" one other question. I am asked whether, if any 
** portion of the South secedes, I will aid the Govern- 
" ment in maintaining the integrity of the Union. Yes, 
" my friend, the integrity of the Union. [Cheers.] 
" I am now struggling for it ; I shall struggle for it to 
" the day of election. The integrity of the Union I 
" shall struggle for with my life's blood if required. 
" [Enthusiastic cheers.] But if this question means by 
" the integrity of the Union the preservation of an ad- 
" ministration that shall trample on any portion of the 
" rights of the South, I tell him that I will aid my 
" State in resisting it to blood. [Great cheering.] 
" The common rights of resistance to wrong which 
" belong to the worm — those rights are not the rights 
" which were meant to be secured by our fathers in the 
" Declaration of Independence, when they cut them- 
" selves loose from despotism and the despotic ties of 
" the old world. The serf of Russia has got the right 
" of revolution. The hog has got the right to resist if 
" you try to put a knife to his throat. [Cheers and 
" laughter.] The right of revolution is only the poor 
" serf's right. It is no right at all. It is only the last 
" expiring throe of oppressed nationality." [Tumultu- 
ous cheering.] 

Proceeding from New York to Boston, Mr. Yancey 
spoke at Faneuil Hall, Nowhere had he been mis- 



450 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

represented more than in New England ; nowhere was 
his name more detested than at Boston. Faneuil Hall 
had once been closed to Mr. Webster, and now a 
fiercer States-Rights man than Webster's old adversary, 
Hayxe, was about to address the constituents of Sumner 
and BuRLiNGAME fi'om a rostrum devoted to fi-eedom. 
The hall was densely packed with an excited and hostile 
mass of men. At the outset of his remarks there was 
unmistakable tendency to designed confusion and de- 
liberate interruption, but Mr. Yancey refused to notice 
that the demonstrations were other than accidental. 
He alluded in a few terse words to that freedom of 
thought and speech for which Boston had been distin- 
guished since the days of Warren and Revere. Ap- 
pealing to the pride of a Boston audience he soon 
secured silence and attention. Then, once more, he 
repeated the argument which, in his hands, had become 
almost irresistible, demanding the equality of the States 
in the Union, and abating not one jot or tittle from the 
pretensions of the South. He asked : 

•' Do you shrink from an honest competition with 
" the slaveholder ? [' No !'] Then take your hands 
" ofl' of the slave labor, and let us fight it out with you 
" there in an honest way. [Loud applause.] I think 
" I know something about the character of the ancient 
" men of Massachusetts, if I know nothing about the 
" men of to-day ; and I tell you that the men who 
" Ibught at Bunker Hill and Lexington, and fought all 
" over the Union for the common rights of all — those 
" men were men of too much pride, too much common 
" sense, and too much love of justice to ask that in any 
" race they tried with anybody else, their opponents 
" should be held fast and they let loose. [Cries of 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERAOY. 451 

" '■ good.'] Now, if you think that your institutions 
" are better than ours, if you think yours are more 
" civilizing than ours, if you think they can carry on 
" the great cause of civilization better than we can, all 
" we ask is — hands ofl' ■ fair play — and victory to him 
"who wins. [Loud cheering. A. voice— -'Do you 
" mean to withdraw from the Union ?'] We will never 
" withdraw from the Union as long as the Constitution 
" exists in its integrity. I will tell you what the South 
" mast do, what she inevitably will do, if you put your 
" heel on her, if you deny her equality, if you say she 
" shall not have the rights in the Union which your 
" fathers declared she should have. If you violate the 
" Constitution, I tell you, the South tells you, her 
" safety does not depend upon you, gentlemen. Her 
" safety does not depend upon you. The descendants 
" of the men who fought the battles of Eutaw, King's 
" Mountain, and Yorktown, and helped you fight your 
" battles here, can take care of themselves if you won't 
" take care of them. [Renewed cheering.] And, 
" mind you, I utter it in no vaunt, and as no threat. Why, 
" my countrymen, walk in a field, tread on a caterpil- 
" lar, and the poor creature will turn on your boot and 
" try to sting you. [' Do you think so ?'J Yes, my 
" friend, 1 do think so, and you think so, too, if you 
" have an ounce of manhood in your weight of hundred 
" and fifty pounds. [Great applause and laughter.] 

" And mind, I say, that in all this that I declare the 
" South will do, she does not mean to trespass upon 
" you. Thank God, I can say so for my section, that 
" she has never proposed a wrong upon you — she has 
" always resisted every proposition of wrong upon you 
" — she has been ready to fight. When the flag was 



452 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" * Free Trade and Sailor's Rights,' she helped to carry 
"forward the contest of the war of 1812, when some 
" men in fair New England shrank from that contest." 
[Loud cheers.] 

The effect produced by this speech at Faneuil Hall 
may be understood from the cotemporaneous comments 
of the newspapers. The Boston Courier, an advocate 
of the election of Mr. Bell, said : 

" It is enough to say that Mr. Yancey's speech was 
'^ worthy of the famous hall in which it was spoken. 
" He was eloquent, logical, patriotic, and patient under 
" the taunts which were poured in upon him. The 
" speech will be remembered a long time by all who 
" heard it. Whether we agree or not with Mr. Yancey, 
" we are glad that he has given us an address which 
" will set our people thinking. When the men of Mas- 
" sachttsetts begin to reason, we shall see day breaking." 

The Boston Post said : 

" He spoke as a son of Alabama, who loved his own 
" State the best, but who recognized co-equal rights in 
" the State in which he stood. Then he went on 
" frankly and boldly for over two hours with admirable 
" closeness of argument and richness of illustration. 

" The lucid presentation of the historical argument ; 
" the analysis of the commercial relations which bind 
" the North and the South ; the development of the 
" importance of the cotton interest ; the defence of 
" Southern institutions — were done with master ability. 
'^ Interspersed with the main lines of argument, was a 
" succession of questions put by unwilhng listeners, 
" which, so far from embarrassing the orator, were met 
*' with a promptness and directness of reply that now 
" drew forth shouts of laughter and now thunders, of 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 453 

" applause. We hazard nothina; in the remark, that 
*' there has not been seen such an exhibition of the 
"power of oratory for a long time, if ever, in this hall — 
" and at quarter past ten, when Mr. Yancey intimated 
" that exhaustion would oblige him to close his speech, 
" the closely packed audience still remained and urged 
" him to go on — and his beautiful and noble peroration 
" was listened to in the profoundest silence ! 

" We spread the letter of this remarkable effort 
" before our readers, and they can read the words ; but 
" no words can give an idea of the tones, the gesture, 
" the manly bearing, the ready wit and the conclusive 
" point of the orator ; and the quick appreciation of the 
" excited audience. It was a succession of triumphs, 
" and at the conclusion the hall rang with the wildest 
" applause." 

Returning South by way of the Western States, 
Mr. Yancey spoke at Cynthiana and Lexington, at 
Cincinnati and at Louisville. Mr. Geo. D. Prentice, 
of the Louisville Journal, while decrying his speech 
through the press, had paid the orator the very highest 
compliment by listening to him four hours and in a 
standing posture. At New Orleans the distinguished 
speaker was received with the wildest enthusiasm. 
The audience which greeted him was the largest that 
had ever assembled in the Crescent City. Large 
numbers came in from the country. Opulent planters 
were seen upon the stand side by side with merchant 
princes of the city. It was said that no popular meet- 
ing had ever before been witnessed in New Orleans 
where the officers who presided represented so large 
an amount of the wealth of the State. Twenty thou- 
sand voices uprose to the heavens in long continued 



454 TfiE CRADLE OP THE OONFEDEUACY, 

plaudits, while from the balconies and windows which 
overlooked the square, thousands of handkerchiefs were 
waved by the ladies. When the meeting was dissolved, 
the vast multitude formed into procession, the well- 
organized clubs taking the lead with lamps and 
transparencies, marched through the principal streets 
greeted by multitudes on the sidewalks with cheers and 
huzzas for Breckinridge, Yancey and the South. 

The week preceding the Presidential election wit- 
nessed the arrival, at Montgomery, of Mr. Douglas 
and the return of Mr. Yancey. The reception of the 
former was comparatively tame and cold. His address 
to the people was a repetition of those which he had 
already made during a protracted canvass. As he had 
said at Norfolk in reply to a question what should be 
done in the event of the secession of a State, so now 
again he answered that the election of Mr. Lincoln 
would not jstify a disruption of the Union, and no State 
should be permitted to set up an independent govern- 
ment against the United States. This declaration was 
received with cheers by the large audience which, partly 
from sympathy, partly from courtesy, but more espe- 
cially from curiosity, had assembled to hear him. 
Although the cheering was by no means general, it 
was sufliciently widespread and distinct to exhibit an 
unmistakable Union spirit in the audience. The visit 
of Mr. Douglas appeared to be ominous. As he left 
the city and spoke his farewell words to the people 
upon the bank of the river, the deck of the steamer 
upon which he stood gave way .and precipitated him 
several feet below. Mrs. Douglas, who was standing 
with Mrs. Fitzpatrick and a company of Montgomery 
ladies around them, barely escaped fatal injury. 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 455 

The reception of Mr. Yancey at his home was an 
event long to be remembered by the people of Mont- 
gomery. He was already endeared to his political 
followers by twenty years devotion to their principles. 
He was now looked upon with pride by even his oppo- 
nents, who felt that their city and State were honored 
in one whose splendid oratory had thrilled the Union 
from centre to circumference. The little city of ten 
thousand inhabitants turned out en masse to welcome 
her distinguished son. As the evening shades fell upon 
the streets myriads of lights illumined the dwellings, 
the sidewalks and the public buildings. The political 
clubs emerged from their halls with transparencies and 
torches. Bonfires blazed at the corners of streets. A s 
the mass of eager people followed the march of the 
clubs the procession lengthened out indefinitely, and 
with one accord, accompanied by music and banners, they 
marched to the residence of Mr. Yancey. There the 
orator was received in an open carriage drawn by four 
splendid horses and conducted to the Theatre, which 
was already well filled with ladies. The men crowded 
upon the stage, filled the aisles and passages with a 
dense mass, and sought from the lobby, the vestibules 
and the stairways to secure a glimpse of the inspiring 
scene within. " Welcome to the Garibaldi of the South," 
'* Yancey and States-Rights," " Equality in the Union 
" or independence out of it," were some of the significant 
mottoes which decked the stage. Boquets were show- 
ered around him as the speaker appeared, and the 
whole audience rose to thefr feet with cheer upon cheer. 
The multitude outside who could not obtain entrance, 
clamored for Mr. Judge to come out and addiess them. 
Thus the audience in the street who listened to Mr. 



THE CRADLE OF I'HE CONFEDERACY. 

Yancey by deputy was almost as great as that which 
filled the theatre. 

The orator reviewed the canvass which was now to 
close upon the following day. Mr. Lincoln would 
probably be elected, and it became the duty of all true 
Southern men to stand united in resistance to his domi- 
nation. The die was cast ; the argument was exhaust- 
ed ; would his friends stand to their arms ? The 
answer of those friends was given in the motto over his 
head. They looked upon him as the Garibaldi of 
THE South. 

On the 6th of November, while Mr. Lincoln was 
elected President under the forms of the Constitution 
and by the unrepresentative system of Electoral Col- 
leges, the people had declared against him by a large 
majority. The majority of votes against him was 
nearly two hundred thousand. The Supreme Court 
and the Senate were already against him ; and now 
the elections had increased the majority against the 
Republicans in the lower House of Congress. Of the 
twelve hundred and fifty-one thousand votes cast in 
the slave States, Mr. Bell and Mr. Douglas, repre- 
senting the Union sentiment, as against the secession 
sentiment, received six hundred and and ninety thou- 
sand, a clear majority of the whole. In the State of 
Alabama there were 41,000 against Mr. Breckinridge 
to 48,000 in his favor. A larger vote had been polled 
in Mr. Yancey's own State for candidates who de- 
nounced both the right and policy of secession, than 
ever before in her annals. In Georgia the vote for 
Bell and Douglas was larger than for Brecklnridge. 
In Mississippi, the grave of Quitman and the home of 
Davis, the Breckinridge ticket stood to the others only 



THE CRADLE OV THE CONFEDERACY. 457 

as four to three. Louisiana threw five thousand ma- 
jority against Breckinridge. 

In the Gulf States, from the Atlantic to the Missis- 
sippi, there was, in a poll of 330,000 votes, a bare 
majority of 14,000 for Mr. Breckinridge. While 
172,000 men stood by Mr. Yancey, there were, 157,000 
who stood with Mr. Bell for " the Constitution, the 
" Union and the enforcement of the law," or with Mr. 
Douglas in denying the right and policy of secession 
in the event of Mr. Lincoln's election. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Election of Lincoln — Beceptioii of the News — Mass Meet- 
ing at Montgomery — Yancey Declares for Secession — 
The People Taught that Secession will he Peaceable — 
Co-operationists and Secessioriists — The Crittenden 
Compromise — Its Rejection and Defeat. 



" Wayward sisters, depart injpeace !"— [Gen. Winfleld Scott. 

" I have good reason to believe that the action of any State will be 
peaceable— will not be resisted— under the present or any probable pros- 
pective condition of Federal affairs."— [W. L. Yancey. 

" Were the plan of the Convention adverse to the public happiness, my 
voice would be, Reject the plan. Were the Union Itself inconsistent 
with the public happiness, it would be. Abolish the Union."— [Madi- 
son in the Federalist, No. xiv. 

On the night of the eventful 6th of November, 1860, 
as the telegraph carried to every nook and corner of 
the Union the news of the election, the people of Mont- 
gomery thronged the streets and the newspaper offices 
to a late hour to learn the result. All depended upon 
New York ; it was past midnight before definite returns 
could be received from that vast State. At last the 
result was announced. The administration of the 
United States fhad been consigned to the Free Soil 
party, the restrictionists of slavery. Mr. Watts had 
already broken the Whig line by announcing, towards 
the close of the canvass, that in the event of Lincoln's 
election he should advise and advocate secession. He 
had been educated at the University of Virginia in the 
school of constitutional law presided over by Davis, 



460 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

afterwards by Holcombe, and had steadfastly recog- 
nized the right of secession. As it was a right, so he 
believed that now it was the duty of Alabama to secede. 
The excited citizens who had been watching the 
returns asked, " Mr. Watts, what will you do now ?" 
His reply was, " Gentlemen, we ought not to stand it." 
Clanton, whose views were moulded in a different 
school, walked the streets to a late hour, appealing to 
his party friends not to commit themselves — to wait for 
the cool second thought ; but by noon of the next day 
so rapid appeared to be the defections from the Union 
ranks among the people of Montgomery and the adja- 
cent country, and so unmistakable was their intention 
to vindicate the declaration of their General Assembly, 
that men of all parties at the Capital, with but a few 
exceptions, pronounced for instant and separate se- 
cession. (?) 

It was the policy of those who advocated secession to 
strike while the iron was hot, to arouse the people to 
fury immediately upon the heels of the election, and 
to persuade them that immediate action while many 
friends of the South were still influential and powerful 
at Washington, would so concentrate and consolidate 
the strength and resources of seceding States as to 
render the movement entirely peaceable. On the 
morning of the 8th, while passions were still inflamed, 
the leading journal at Montgomery, in the confidence 
of Mr. Yancey, published a leader entitled, " And Now." 
It said : " Organize ! We can now enforce a peaceable 
" secession. The time may come, will come, must 
" come, if you delay when you can gain your freedom, 
" if at all, only as the colonies gained it when they 
" separated ; only as our forefathers gained it when 



THE CRADLi; OF THE CONFEDERACY. 461 

" they fought the battle of disunion, through toil and 
" bloodshed, through carnage and desolation." The 
burden of the cry from all quarters was — make haste 
and all can be done completely and peaceably ; delay, 
and the enemy seeing you unprepared to prevent the 
coercion of South Carolina, will force you to battle 
and perhaps desolation ! Between the two alter- 
natives as here presented, there was but little hesita- 
tion in the' cities and towns where the question was 
most thoroughly discussed. 

In the midst of the highest excitement and popular 
indignation a mass meeting was called at Estelle Hall. 
At the request of Tennent Lomax, His Excellency 
Gov. A. B. i/ ooRE took his stand upon the platform 
and addressed the vast audience amid tumultuous and 
long continued applause. The Governor said he saw 
no course left but to secede from the Union, resume 
sovereignty, and form a Southern Confederacy. He 
had no discretion with regard to calHng the Conven- 
tion — this he was forced to do by the resolutions of 
the Legislature, but if he had, he should most assuredly 
call it, for he felt that honor, liberty, and property were 
not safe under the rule of Abolitionism. The Governor 
took his seat after a short address, and was succeeded 
by Judge S. F. Rice. 

Judge Rice said that he did not appear for the 
purpose of making a speech, but to introduce a resolu- 
tion, which he read, as follows : 

" Resolved, That the authority and control of the 
" Northern sectional Abolition party, calling itself Re- 
" pubhcan, which has lately elected Abraham Lincoln 
" to the Presidency, over the institutions, rights, and 
" liberties of the people of Alabama, or any other slave- 



462 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" holding State of the South, would be ruinous ; that 
" such ruinous authority and control is not to be sub- 
" mitted to, but can only be eflectively resisted by 
" separate State action ; that we are in favor of such 
" separate State action, and without any further delay 
" than may be necessary, by the most prompt available 
" means, to procure a free and fraternal consultation 
" among the peoples and authorities of the respective 
" slaveholding States, entered into and conducted under 
" the patriotic hope that such consultation will result in 
" the general conclusion on the part of the people of 
" the slaveholding States, that it is not fit or safe, that 
" they or any of them should be subject to the control 
" of any government, the destinies of which are in the 
" hands of said sectional Abolition party." 

Judge Edward W. Pettus, of Cahaba, in obedience 
to the repeated calls of the audience, took the stand 
and made a few eloquent remarks in favor of the reso- 
lution. He was followed by N. H. R. Dawson, of 
Selma, whose earnest and thrilling address made an 
evident impression upon his hearers. Loud calls were 
made for Mr. Watts, who responded in a spirited 
appeal in behalf of his State and section. When Mr. 
Watts had concluded, Judge Goldthwaite was called 
for, and taking his place on the platform, vindicated the 
cause of the South and defended the right and policy of 
secession. His remarks were repeatedly interrupted 
by outbursts of applause. Mr. Yancey responded to 
the enthusiastic demands of the audience, and spoke as 
Yancey always spoke. It was his night of triumph. 
The first resolution ever passed by a public assemblage 
at the Capital of the State in favor of secession, had 
just been adopted. He said : 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERACY. 463 

"This night two weeks ago, I was asked, while 
" speaking in New York, what course I would advise 
"' Alabama to take in the event that Lincoln should be 
" elected President. Acting in perfect good faith to 
" the issues presented by the party, whose cause I ad- 
" vocated, and which issues contemplated a solution of 
" the political questions at the ballot-box only, within 
" the Union, I declined to give utterance to my indi- 
" vidual opinions, which could only tend to embarrass 
" my friends and to encourage their foes, but told the 
" people of New York that I should cheerfully give 
" that advice to my fellow-citizens of Alabama, when- 
" ever they should see fit to ask it ; [applause] and 1 
" redeem that pledge to-night, by saying that in my 
" opinion the election of Abraham Lincoln to the office 
" of President of the United States by the Black Re- 
"■ publican party, taken in connection with his own 
" political utterances, and the views and acts of his 
" party in Congress, and in the several Northern States, 
" is an overt act against the Constitution - [applause] 
" against the Constitution, and against the Union, [ap- 
" plause] and as such should be deemed sufficient cause 
" for a withdrawal of the State of Alabama, and a 
" resumption of all the powers she has granted to the 
" Union, by separate State secession. [Prolonged ap- 
" plause.] And while giving utterance- to this advice, I 
" repudiate as utterly untrue, that in any just sense I 
" am a Disunionist. [Applause.] If always to have 
" advocated the right of all under the Constitution — if 
" never to have assailed any single provision of that 
" Constitution — if the advocacy of a policy of defense 
"against wrong done to Southern rights — equaHty and 
" honor within the Union, constitutes a friend to that 



464 THE CKADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" * more perfect Union,' represented by the Constitu- 
" tion, then by universal acclaim I should be held to 
" be a Union man, [applause] and if to-night I advise 
" my State to withdraw herself from this Federal Gov- 
" ernment in order to protect her rights and the rights 
" of her people from wrongs done to them by a viola- 
" tion of that Constitution by a numerical power that 
" controls the government, I have the judgment of the 
" Constitution itself in my favor and against its viola- 
" tors, and am no disunionist. But, I am not content 
" with my own vindication. That with which we are 
" falsely charged is true of our accusers. [Applause.] 
" Look back at the history of our government. I will 
" not enumerate the list of grievances of which the 
" Spirit of the Constitution complains — and about 
" which our patriotic Chief Magistrate spoke so clearly 
" to-night, but I will refer for a moment to the acts of 
" the now dominant party upon the fugitive slave law. 
'' The Constitution calls for the enactment of this law 
" in plain terms. One of the very first acts of our 
" patriot sires was to enact a fugitive slave law. The 
" Constitution, it is well known, could not have been 
"formed without the provision for the surrender of 
" fugitive slaves. The Constitution, too, is a compact, 
" not between the majority and the minority of the 
" people of the United States, but between sovereign 
'' States. It was submitted to a Convention of each 
" State for its adoption or rejection ; and was for a long 
" time in operation before two of the original thirteen 
" States concluded to come into the Union. It is then 
" a compact between the States. How has that com- 
"pact been kept by the Black Republican States? 
" Twelve of them have passed laws nullifying the fugi- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY 465 

" tive slave law and provision in the Constitution, have 
" made it a crime in their citizens to aid in its execu- 
" tion, punishing such action by heavy fine and impris- 
" onment in the penitentiary. The compact, then, has 
" been broken — the Union has been dissolved — the 
" Constitution has been violated by this infamous 
" party ; and now, when we, one of the parties to that 
" compact, propose to act on the well-established princi- 
" pie that a compact broken in part is broken as a 
" whole, if either party chooses to consider it, the viola- 
" tors — the breakers of that compact — those who have 
"themselves disrupted the bonds of Union, cry out- 
" treason ! disunion ! [Applause.] Fellow-citizens, we 
" have long been released from any obligation to con- 
" tinue in association with these Northern States under 
" this broken, mutilated compact. And now, when the 
" real, true disunionists have, at last, elected a Presi- 
" dent — by a majority of electoral votes — by a majority 
" of the popular vote — by a purely sectional vote, and 
" propose to ' inaugurate the policy of the irrepressible 
" conflict into the government — which is the end of 
" slavery,' [in Mr. Seward's words,] we propose to 
" withdraw from beneath such usurpation and power, 
" and protect ourselves. [Applause.] 

" There are other States, each and all having similar 
" wrongs to complain of, and similar rights and institu- 
" tions to save and protect. If any of those States 
" wish a consultation with us and each other, it is our 
" duty to afford a fair opportunity for a full, fi^ee, fi:a- 
" ternal interview. Should that take place, I hope, as 
" my friend Mr. Watts expressed it, that ^ we may all go 
" together ;' as Judge Goldthwaite expressed it, that * we 
" will act together.' [Applause.] But there is a point 



4«6 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" beyond that. In the contingency that consultation 
" shall not produce concert — that all will not ' act ' — or 
" ' go out together," what then ? Shall we, like them, 
" linger yet within the desecrated portals of the gov- 
" ernment — shall we remain and be all slaves— shall 
" we remain but to share with them the disgrace 
" of inequality and dishonor ? God forbid ! [Tremen- 
" dous applause.] Let us act in that event for our- 
" selves. [Applause.] I have good reason to believe 
" that the action of any State will be peaceable — will 
" not be resisted — under the present, or any probable 
" prospective condition of Federal aifairs. I beHeve 
" there will not be power to direct a gun against a sov- 
" ereign State. [Applause.] Certainly there will be 
" no will to do so during the present Administration. 
" [Applause.] And if resisted, blood shed will appeal 
" to blood throbbing in Southern bosoms, and our 
" brethren from every Southern State will flock to 
" defend the soil of a State which may be threatened 
" by mercenary bayonets. [Applause.] It is not all 
" of Hfe to live, nor all of death to die. To do one's 
" duty, is man's chief aim in life. Better far to close 
'' our days by an act of duty — life's aims fulfilled, than 
" to prolong them for years — years filled with the cor- 
" roding remembrance that we had tamely yielded to 
" our ease and our fears that noble heritage, which waa 
'• transmitted to us through toil, suffering, battle and 
" victory, with the condition that we likewise should 
" transmit it unimpaired to our posterity. [Applause.] 
" As for myself, rather than hve on, subject to a gov- 
" ernment which breaks the compact at will, and places 
" me in a position of inequaUty — of inferiority to the 
" Northern free negro — though that life might be illus- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 467 

" trated by gilded chains — by luxury and by ease, I 
" would in the cause of my State gather around me 
" some brave spirits who, however few in number, would 
" find a grave, which my countrymen — the world and 
" all future ages, should recognize as a modern Ther- 
" mopylse ! [Prolonged applause.] " 

At the close or Mr. Yancey's remarks, Gen. Clanton 
was called for by the audience. He said that he had 
been always a devoted friend of the Union, that even 
in the late canvass he had declared himself in favor of 
waiting for an overt act, but that the immense majori- 
ties given to the Abolition ticket convinced him that 
we had nothing to hope for fi^om the North, and he 
could not consider the liberty and property of South- 
ern men safe in the Union. He was for immediate 
secession. Gen. Clanton said that he had never here- 
tofore agreed with Mr. Yancey and those who thought 
with him, that one month ago he thought he never 
would agree with them, but that now he was willing to 
bury the hatchet and unite with all true Southern men 
in establishing a free and independent government of 
slaveholding States. The facts which had induced 
Gen. Clanton to forego his intention of waiting for the 
commission of an unconstitutional act by the Lincoln 
Administration before establishing a separate govern- 
ment, had arisen just before the close of the canvass and 
since the election. Wendell Phillips, the boldest and 
most philosophic leaderof the Lincoln party, had declared, 
and the declaration had been repeated bythe press and 
from the rostrum until it had become a party cry : 
" No man has a right to be surprised at this state of 
" things. It is just what we have attempted to bring 
*' about. It is the first sectional party ever organized 



468 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" in this country. It does not know its own face, and 
" calls itself national ; but it is not national — it is sec- 
" tional. The Republican party is a party of the 
" North pledged against the South." It was now an- 
nounced that Mr. Seward would be Secretary of State. 
In his " Irrepressible conflict " speech he had asserted 
that the " United States must and will, sooner or later, 
" become either entirely a slave-holding nation or 
" entirely a free-labor nation." These declarations of 
hostility to the South had been repeated oftener as the 
canvass approached a close, and on the 6th of Novem- 
ber few persons. North or South, failed to understand 
that the election of Lincoln was to be the restriction 
and ultimate dstruction of slavery without regard to law 
or courts. On that day the State governments at the 
North had passed into or had been retained in the 
hands of the Republican party by overwhelming ma- 
jorities — a party which freely boasted that the Personal 
Liberty Laws should remain in force, and the Fugitive 
Slave Law remain nullified. Gen. Clanton believed 
that nothing could be longer hoped for from the temper 
of the North — that, although the Lincoln Administra- 
tion might be trammelled for four years by a hostile 
Congress and Court, at the end of that time the power 
of all the Departments would pass into the hands of 
the Republican party, ajid the South, with her forts 
and arsenals guarded by large garrisons, and with her 
territory occupied by the troops of the Presidential 
Commander-in-Chief, would find herself unable to assert 
her independence when the ove^'t ad should be com- 
mitted. 

There was another incentive which urged him most 
powerfully to declare for instant secession. It was to 



THE CRADLE OF THE OONFEDERACY. 469 

preserve a Constitutional Union. He had come to 
believe that the secession of the Southern States would 
be peaceably acquiesced in by the North, that it would 
be followed by a call for a general Convention of the 
States at which the questions in dispute might be 
weighed and accommodated and the Union reconstruct- 
ed upon the principles of the Constitution, well-defined 
and accepted. It may be a matter of wonder that a 
man of the political sagacity and general inteUigence 
of Gen. Clanton should have believed for a moment 
that the secession of the Cotton States would be acqui- 
esced in by the General Government. He did not 
believe so until after the election, and then his belief 
was based upon the clear declaration of one of the 
leaders of the Republican party that secession ought 
not to be interfered with. That secession might be^ 
and doubtless would be, a peaceable measure, was 
almost universally beHeved by the secession party of 
the South. The military preparations made by the 
States would barely have secured an efficient border 
and coast police. The money and supplies voted for 
military purposes would not have fed an army a month. 
So contemptible were the preparations for defence, so 
meagre the supplies for action, so few the muskets and 
accoutrements, that nothing could have relieved the 
Legislatures of the seceding States from a charge of 
insanity except a firm belief in their minds that there 
would be no necessity for armies — that there would be 
no coercion. As an illustration of the delusion upon 
this subject, even with prominent statesmen and mili- 
tary men. Gen. Clanton was accustomed to tell how, 
when a few months later than the election, a cavalry 
regiment of militia, of which he was a field officer, was 



470 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

ofiFered to President Davis, the reply was that the Con- 
federacy would not need cavalry, that it would be an 
infantry war, and that a few regiments of infantry 
would be sufficient. This feeling of security was 
exhibited throughout the Southern press. " We can 
" now enforce a peaceable secession," exclaimed the 
Advertiser. Mr. Yancey, fresh from his Northern 
tour, declared : " I have good reason to beUeve that 
" the action of any State will be peaceable— will not be 
" resisted — under the present or any probable prospec- 
" tive condition of Federal affairs." It was understood 
at the South that the views of Mr. Sevpard, the leading 
spirit of the RepubHcan party, and of Mr. Charles 
Francis Adams, who had been a candidate for the 
Vice-Presidency upon the Abolition ticket as early as 
1848, were those of the illustrious John Quincey Adams. 
That distinguished gentleman, in his " Discourse 
" delivered before the New York Historical Society," 
on the fiftieth anniversary of Gen. Washington's inaug- 
uration as President, had admitted the natural right of 
the people of a State to secede from the Union, whilst 
deprecating its exercise. He had said : 

" But the indissoluble link of Union between the 
" people of the several States of this confederated nation 
" is, after all, not in the right, but in the heart. If the 
" day should ever come (may Heaven avert it) when 
" the affections of the people of these States shall be 
" aUenated from each other ; when the fraternal spirit 
" shall give way to cold indifference, or collision of 
" interest shall fester into hatred, the bands of political 
" association will not long hold together parties no 
" longer attracted by the magnetism of conciliated inter- 
" ests and kindly sympathies ; and far better will it be 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 471 

" for the people of the disunited States to part in friend- 
" ship from each other, than to be held together by 
" constraint. Then will be the time for reverting to 
" the precedents which occurred at the formation and 
" adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more 
" perfect Union by deploring that which could no longer 
" bind, and to leave the separated parts to be re-united 
" by the law of political gravitation to the centre." 

Such was the opinion of the younger Adams, and 
such, it was believed, was the opinion of the profounder 
thinkers of New England. To confirm the delusion 
engendered at the South by such admissions as these, 
appeared an editorial in the New York Tribune, three 
days alter the election, written by Mr. Horace Gree- 
ley, in which the following sentiments were announced : 

'*If the Cotton States shall become satisfied that they 
" can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on 
*' letting them go in peace. The right to secede may 
" be a revolutionary one, but it exists nevertheless. 
a * * * ^g must ever resist the right of any 
" State to remain in the Union and nullify or defy the 
" laws thereof To withdraw from the Union is quite 
" another matter ; and whenever a considerable section 
" of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we 
" shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep 
" it in. We hope never to live in a Republic whereof 
" one section is pinned to another by bayonets." 

This declaration of Mr. Greeley, one of the founders 
of the Free Soil party, and its ablest advocate with the 
pen, was telegraphed all over the South. It threw into 
the ranks of the Secessionists thousands upon thousands 
of those who had heretofore wavered ; and showed to 
many thousands more a door of escape by which a 



4T2 Tffie CttABLE 01? THE CONFEBERACt. 

more perfect Union might be formed — in the language 
of Mr. Adams, " By dissolving that which could no 
" longer bind," and leaving " the separated parts to be 
" reunited by the law of pohtical gravitation to the 
" centre." Mr. Greeley continued his appeals in 
behalf of the right of the South to be let alone. On 
the 17th of December, three days before the secession 
of South Carolina, he said : 

"If it [the Declaration of Independence] justifies 
" the secession from the British Empire of three millions 
" of colonists in 1776, we do not see why it would not 
" justify the secession of five millions of Southrons from 
"the Federal Union in 1861. If we are mistaken on 
" this point, why does not some one attempt to show 
" wherein and why ? For our own part, while we deny 
" the right of slaveholders to hold slaves against the 
" will of the latter, we cannot see how twenty millions 
" of people can rightfully hold ten, or even five, in a 
" detested Union with them by mihtary force. * * 
" If seven or eight contiguous States shall pre- 
" sent themselves authentically at Washington, 
" saying : ' We hate the Federal Union ; we have 
'' withdrawn from it ; we give you the choice between 
" acquiescing in our secession and arranging amicably 
" all incidental questions on the one hand, and attempt- 
"ing to. subdue us on the other;' we could not stand 
" up for coercion, for subjugation, for we do not think 
" it would be just. We hold the right of self-go vern- 
" ment, even when invoked in behalf of those who 
" deny it to others. So much for the question of prin- 
" ciple." 

In this course the Tribune persisted fi'om the date 
of Mr. Lincoln's election until after his inauguration? 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 473 

employing such remarks as the following : " Any 
" attempt to compel them by force to remain, would be 
" contrary to the principles enunciated in the immortal 
" Declaration of Independence, contrary to the funda- 
" mental ideas on which human liberty is based." 

Even after the Cotton States had formed their Con- 
federacy and adopted a provisional Constitution at 
Montgomery, it gave them encouragement to proceed 
in the following language : " We have repeatedly said, 
" and we once more insist, that the great principle em- 
" bodied by Jefferson in the Declaration of American 
" Independence, that governments derive their just 
" powers from consent of the governed, is sound and 
" just ; and that if the Slave States, the Cotton States, 
" or the Gulf States only, choose to form an independ- 
" ent nation, they have a clear moral right to do so. 
^' Whenever it shall be clear that the great body of 
" Southern people have become conclusively alienated 
" from the Union, and anxious to escape from it, we 
" will do our best to forward their views." 

Mr. Greeley was not alone in his opinion that the 
South should be let alone. The Cincinnati Commercial^ 
a leading Western journal, said as late as March, 1861 : 
" We are not in favor of blockading the Southern coast. 
" We are not in favor of retaking by force the property 
" of the United States now in possession of the seceders. 
" We would recognize the existence of a Government 
" formed of all the slaveholding States, and attempt to 
" cultivate amicable relations with it." 

Mr. Thurlow Weed, who, if any one, represented the 
wishes of Mr. Seward, said in his newspaper, the Albany 
Journal : " The chief architects of the rebellion, before 
" it broke out, avowed that they were aided in their 



474 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

" infernal designs by the ultra-Abolitionists of the 
" North. This was too true, for without such aid the 
" South could never have been united against the Union.'''' 
In a published letter of Gen. F. P. Blair, he says : 
" When the rebellion broke out, Mr Chase used this 
" language : ' The South is not worth fighting for /' 
'^ Several gentlemen of high position in the countr}'^ 
" heard him utter this sentiment substantially. He 
" was at that time Secretary of the Treasury. * * * 
" Jeff Davis said, ' Let us done f Chase said ' Let 
" them alone f " 

" Let them alone," " Let them go," was the cry of 
nearly all the leading Repubhcan journals and politi- 
cians. The New York press was almost a unit for per- 
mitting peaceable secession. The Herald, Harpers 
Weekly, the Day Book, the Tribune, all said, "Let 
" the South go." The General commanding the 
armies, the veteran Scott, also joined the cry and said : 
" Wayward sisters, depart in 'peace V That these dis- 
tinguished officers, statesmen and journalists afterwards 
yielded their views to the clamor of a mob, does not 
affect the fact that such views were widely entertained, 
were believed to be the views of the people of the North, 
and were accepted as such by a large body of Southern 
citizens who otherwise would probably have thrown 
their influence against secession. The editorial of Mr. 
Greeley upon the heels of the election, and while 
Southern blood was hot, confirmed the announcement 
of Mr. Yancey that the South would be let alone, and 
did more to secure the secession of Alabama, Georgia 
and other Gulf States than all else besides. The seces- 
sion party had all along been in a minority in Ala- 
bama. The vote for Mr. Breckinridge was not com- 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 475 

posed entirely of secessionists ; while the vote for Mr. 
Bell and Mr. Douglas was composed almost entirely 
of Union men. Now, to the compact mass of seces- 
sionists was added a large element of the old Whig 
party, who believed that by the speedy secession of all 
the Southern States the Union could be reconstructed 
upon a stronger constitutional basis. 

While men like Clanton believed that the safest 
course at this juncture was to push forward boldly, form 
the new government, and amicably adjust terms for 
reunion ; and while Watts, Judge and other old-line 
Whigs behoved that no adjustment was longer possible, 
and that secession should be resorted to without regard 
to whether it might be peaceable or otherwise, there 
was still a formidable body of citizens, away from the 
lines of railroads, on the hills and in the valleys of the 
mountain country, who put no faith in the promises of 
the Northern enemy, and no confidence in secession as 
a peaceful or revolutionar;y remedy for grievances. 
These men were, for the most part, engaged in agricul- 
tural pursuits, they were non-slaveholders. They had 
sustained Jackson as a Union Democrat and Clay as a 
Union Whig. They had no leaders of marked abihty. 
If they had possessed a leader with the fire of Yancey 
or the industry of Watts, the honesty of Pettus or the 
courage of Judge, the result in Alabama might have 
been different ; Nicholas Davis was brave, Jere 
Clemens was eloquent, Bulger was firm as a rock, and 
Jemison was discreet ; but none of the Union leaders, if 
leaders they could now be called, possessed the power 
of Yancey to breast the whirlwind and the tide until 
the passing of the storm. 

The meeting at which Clanton, Judge, Goldthwaite, 



476 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

and Watts all took their stand by the side of Yancey, 
appointed a committee to wait upon the Governor and 
learn his intentions with reference to calling a State 
Convention. Governor Moore replied that in accord- 
ance with the resolutions of the last Legislature, he 
would issue his proclamation calling for the election of 
delegates to a State Convention so soon as the Electo- 
ral Colleges cast their votes. He appointed Dec. 24th 
as the day for the election, and Jan. 4 th as the day for 
assembling. The Governor proceeded to say why, in 
his opinion, Alabama should secede : 

" They [the Repubhcans] have now succeeded by 
" large majorities, in all the non-slaveholding States, 
" except New Jersey, and perhaps in Oregon and Cali- 
" fornia, in electing j.*r. Lincoln, who is pledged to 
" carry out the principles of the party that elected him. 
" The course of events show clearly that this party will 
" in a short time have a majority in both branches of 
" Congress. It will then be in their power to change 
" the complexion of the Supreme Court so as to make 
" it harmonize with Congress and the President. When 
" that party gets possession of all the Departments of 
" the Government with the purse and the sword, he 
" must be blind indeed who does not see that slavery 
" will be abolished in the District of Columbia, in the 
" dock-yards and arsenals and wherever the Federal 
" Government has jurisdiction. It will be excluded 
" from the Territories, and other Free States will in hot 
" haste be admitted into the Union until they have a 
" majority to alter the Constitution. Then slavery will be 
'' abolished by law in the States, and the ' irrepressible 
" Gonilict ' will end ; for we are notified that it shall 
" never cease until ' the foot of the slave shall cease to 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 477 

" tread the soil of the United States.' The state of 
" society that must exist in the Southern States with 
" four millions of free negroes and then- increase turned 
" loose upon them, I will not discuss — it is too horrible 
" to contemplate." 

. The Governor then dismisses the dangerous part of 
the question with this dash of his pen : 

" If a State withdraws from the Union, the Federal 
" Government has no power, under the Constitution, to 
" use the military force against her, for there is no law 
" to enforce the submission of a sovereign State, nor 
" would such a withdrawal be either an insurrection or 
" an invasion." 

Now that the Governor had called an election for a 
State Convention, it was remembered and published 
that Mr. Yancey, at the Commercial Convention two 
years before, had said that if he should go for disunion 
because of the election of Mr. vSeward to the Presi- 
dency, he would be going in the wake of an inferior 
issue, he would be doing an unconstitutional thing, 
could be arraigned as a rebel and traitor, and be hanged 
lor violating the laws and Constitution of his country. 
It became necessary for him to explain away that 
speech, and to do so he published a letter in which oc- 
curred the following paragraph : 

" I remember well the views I then entertained 
" and then expressed. Mr. liilliard, as I understood 
" him, had expressed the opinion that the South was 
" then on rising ground as to Federal affairs, and that 
" there was no just cause of complaint in the past ; but 
*' that if a Black Republican should be elected Presi- 
" dent in 1860, the South should resist. I contended 
" that there were causes in the past action of the anti- 



478 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" slavery party which would justify secession—and in 
" order to rebuke the tameness of spirit, as well as in- 
" consistency, involved in Mr. Hilliard's position, I 
" presented the argument that an election of a Black 
" Republican, under the form of law, was, per se,^in 
" itself, constitutional, and if considered without refer- 
" ence to the past action and avowed aims of the party 
" electing him, was in my opinion no cause for disun- 
" ion, but if considered as an accumulative fact, the 
" culminating movement and grand success of a party, 
" which for near forty years had been warring on 
" slavery and the South, and had in several instances 
" (as to slave-trade in the District of Columbia, Mis- 
" souri Compromise, and nullifying the fugitive slave 
" law) violated the constitutional compact between the 
" States, it would overflow the cup of our wrongs, and 
" be the point beyond which forbearance would cease to 
" be a virtue. In other words, my position was as to 
" one occupying Mr. Hilliard's position ; the election of 
" a Black Republican was an inferior issue. Whereas, 
" to one occupying my position, disunion could be jus- 
" tified before such an electiou, and such an election 
" would be but another incentive to it."" 

This satisfied his friends ; and forthwith they had 
the weight of his name for separate State secession, and 
his assurance that he had reason to believe that there 
would be no attempt at coercion by the existing or the 
next administration. 

A contest now commenced between the advocates of 
separate State secession and the advocates of co-opera- 
tive secession. So high was public excitement that no 
one was willing to be spoken of as a submissionist. The 
secessionist and the co-operationist alike declared that 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 479 

they would not submit to a Republican Administration. 
But while the secessionist intended his declaration Hte- 
rally, the co-opera tionist intended it to mean that he 
would not submit to unconstitutional acts, such as 
would be acts of the administration as contradistin- 
guished from legitimate acts of the Government. They 
would submit to the Government but would not submit 
to a tyrannical Administration. That the co-operation 
party stood pledged to some kind of secession, does 
not appear substantiated. It is true that before the 
election, the General Assembly, with but one or two 
dissenting voices, had passed the joint resolutions calling 
a State Convention to consider, determine and to do 
what was necessary for the safety of Alabama in the 
event of Republican success. But it is certain that the 
vote would not have been so nearly a unit had not the 
anti-secessionists believed that the resolutions were sus- 
ceptible of two constructions. Upon examining those 
resolutions we find the Assembly declaring that whereas 
the RepubHcan party " hopes by success in the ap- 
" preaching Presidential election to seize the govern- 
'' ment itself," and whereas, " to permit such seizure 
" * * * would be an act of suicidal folly and mad- 
" ness," therefore, they '' deem it their solemn duty to 
" provide in advance the means by which they may 
" escape such peril and dishonor, and devise new secu- 
" rities tor perpetuating the blessings of liberty."' This 
language, it must be readily seen, was such as might 
be adopted by either a secessionist or an anti-secession- 
ist. If it was the design of the Repubhcans to seize 
the government in defiance of the Senate and Supreme 
Court, then the Union men and all were ready to 
provide means for escaping the peril. Those means 



480 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

might be provided, however, within the Union. " Let 
" us fight within the Union !" was the cry of a large 
body of the people, embracing statesmen of distinction, 
conspicuously among whom was Henry A. Wise. 

Nor was the Union man and Co-operationist in 
their opinion committed to some kind of secession by 
the resolution adopted unanimously on the first day of 
the session of the Alabama Convention. The resolu- 
tion as offered by Mr. Whatley, of Calhoun, was as 
follows : 

" Whereas, The only bond of Union between the 
" several States is the Constitution of the United States ; 
" and, whereas, that Constitution has been violated both 
" by the Government of the United States and by a ma- 
" jority of Northern States, in their separate legislative 
" action, denying to the people of the Southern States 
" their constitutional rights ; 

" And, whereas, a sectional party known as the 
" Black Republican party, has in the recent election 
" elected Abraham Lincoln to the oliice of President, 
" and Hannibal Hamlin to the office of Vice-President 
" of these United States, upon the avowed principle 
" that the Constitution of the United States does not 
" recognize property/ in slaves, and that the Govern- 
" ment should prevent its extension into the common 
" territories of the United States, and that the power 
" of the Government should be so exercised that slaver?/ 
" in time should be exterminated ; Therefore, be it 

" Resolved, By the people of Alabama, in solemn 
" Convention assembled, that these acts and designs 
" constitute such a violation of the compact between 
" the several States as absolves the people of Alabama 
" fi'om all obligations to support a government of the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONTBDERACY. 481 

" United States to be administered upon such princi- 
" pies, and that the people of Alabama will not submit 
" to be parties to the inauguration and administration 
" of Abraham Lincoln as President, and Hannibal 
" Hamlin as Vice-President of the United States of 
" America." 

This resolution was offered in the Alabama Conven- 
tion, as was said by the mover, to test whether any 
delegates were in favor of submitting to Lincoln's Ad- 
ministration. " I desire to ascertain," said he, " the 
" sense of this body upon the question of submission or 
" resistance." Mr. Smith, of Tuscaloosa, said : " Prc- 
" sent a naked question of resistance to Black Repub- 
" lican rule, and you will doubtless receive a unani- 
" mous vote in favor of it. But do not so interlard it 
" with generalities and political abstractions that we 
" shall be forced to reject the good on account of its 
" too close association with the evil. I object particu- 
" larly to make an intimation that I would oppose by 
" force the inauguration of Lincoln. I would not have 
" anything to do with that in any way. I deprecate 
" the idea of intimating to the people, even remotely, 
" that the laws ought not to be respected." Mr. 
Posey, of Lauderdale, said : " We intend to resist. It 
" is not our purpose to submit to the doctrines asserted 
" at Chicago, but our resistance is based upon consulta- 
" tion and in unity of action with the other slave 
" States."* It was well understood on all sides that a 
resistance based upon consultation with the other Slave 
States, would be simply a peaceful resistance at the 
polls. The resolution as proposed by Mr. Whatley 
was finally amended and passed unanimously, in the 
following shape : 



482 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" Resolved, By the people of Alabama, in Conven- 
'* tion assembled, that the State of Alabama cannot and 
" will not submit to the administration of Lincoln and 
" Hamhn as President and Vice-President of the 
" United States upon the principles referred to in the 
" preamble." 

This resolution was a clear evasion of the whole 
question. It was simply a declaration that the people 
would not submit to Lincoln's administration if certain 
things as expressed in Mr. Whatley's preamble were 
true. But Mr. Posey had just denied that the matters 
set out in the preamble were true. He said : " I 
'" oppose the resolutions because the first recital in the 
" preamble places resistance to Mr. Lincoln's Adminis- 
" tration upon the aggressions of the Federal Govern- 
" ment as well as those of the Northern States. The 
" last charge is true ; the first is not true." 

The passage of this conditional resolution unani- 
mously has been held by those who are unwilhng to 
acknowledge that a pohtical adversary may evade a 
question as a declaration that the Co-operationists, as a 
party, favored secession in some shape. They forget 
that the opponents of secession in 1850 adopted similar 
tactics with success. While favoring co-operation, as 
at the Nashville Convention, they took care that the 
co-operation should be in favor of peace and Union. 
That the above resolution as adopted was not con- 
strued by them to mean necessarily some kind of 
secession or disunion, is satisfactorily shown by the 
sentiments of co-operation the members expressed 
throughout the proceedings, and finally upon the adop- 
tion of the ordinance of secession. Thus the minority 
report upon the question of secession laid down " a basis 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 483 

" for a settlement of the existing difficulties between 
" the Northern and the Southern States." This report, 
and the plan of a Convention for all the slave-holding 
States at NashvUle, looked not to resistance, not to 
certain secession in some mode, but to a continued 
Union. This minority report was endorsed by all the 
co-operation members and received 45^ votes as against 
54. It was reported by Mr. Clemens, of Madison, and 
may be taken as the authoritative expression of the views 
of the Co-operation party. The basis for a settlement 
upon which the Union might be maintained was not 
presented as a sine qua non ; the report provided that 
it was not to be regarded as " absolute and unaltera- 
" ble." The remarks of members also indicated that 
whatever might be the meaning of the resolution not to 
submit, it did not mean that they were not to make 
one more effort to preserve the Union. Said Mr. 
Clarke, of Lawrence : " Is the great Constitution under 
" which we live-- covering this whole country-r-is it to 
" be thawed and melted away by secession as the snows 
" on the mountains ? No, sir ! No, sir ! I will not 
" state what might produce disruption of the Union ; 
" but, sir, I see as plainly as I see the sun in heaven 
" what that disruption itself must produce." Again, 
speaking of the plan for a Convention at Nashville, Mr. 
Clarke said : " If some plan of reconciliation were de- 
" vised by it which should satisfy the demands of the 
" Southern States, as I confidently believe would be 
" done, certainly every good patriot would hail it with 
" delight." Mr. Posey said : " We would make one 
" more effort to preserve the Federal Government." 
Mr. Winston, of DeKalb, said : " I represent a constitu- 
'^ ency opposed to this hasty dissolution of the best 



484 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" government the world ever knew." He said further, 
" that an effort should be made in the Union to adjust 
" our existing difficulties with the North." 

Senator Fitzpatrick, whose residence was in Autauga 
county, only a few miles from Montgomery, was one 
of the recognized leaders of the Co-operation party. 
As Mr. Fitzpatrick had so often defeated the policy of 
Mr. Yancey, it was now a labor to which the advocates 
for secession devoted themselves most assiduously to 
defeat the wishes of the Senator. Bolling Hall, a 
warm personal and party friend of Mr. Fitzpatrick, 
became the candidate of the Co-operationists for a seat 
in the Convention from Autauga county, and the con- 
test between him and his opponent was one of the most 
bitter in the State. A correspondent of the Advertiser^ 
writing from that county and describing a debate 
between the candidates, gives a fair idea of the political 
contest. He says : 

" As the policy of co-operation was first inaugurated 
" in this county by Hall and Fitzpatrick, a great desire 
" was manifested on the part of our citizens to hear 
" what the Major [Hall] had to say in its defense. 
" Leading off in a debate, he consumed an hour and a 
" half in a vain attempt to explain the unfortunate polit- 
" ical position which he occupies before the people of 
" Autauga county. We have heard him often, and wc 
" must confess that it was the most futile eflort that we 
" have ever heard him make. His mind seemed alto- 
" gether clouded with the subject ; and so desultory 
" were his remarks, that all their force was lost. He 
" was openly for co-operation, however, but said * he 
*' was afraid that even that would lead to secession at 
" last.' He was opposed to Alabama seceding without 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 485 

" a sufficient number of States would go with her ; but 
" he refused to answer the question put to him by Dr. 
" Rives as to how many States he thought would be a 
" ^ sufficient number.' iv* ajor Hall, with his co-opera- 
" tion doctrine, met with cold comfort at this place, as 
" he took his seat without having received a single 
" applause." 

Another correspondent writing from Autauga, said : 

" In this county (Autauga) co-operation is, or has 
" terminated into unionism. Major Boiling Hall stated 
" in his speech at Milton, ' that he wanted to make one 
" more effort to save this glorious Union.' At Chest- 
" nut Creek the Hall men had a flag with thirty-three 
" stars, and one side in large letters • Union,' and they 
" marched in procession singing a song with the chorus 
" * Boiling Hall, and the Union, too' Let the secession 
" men keep a lookout for the Union men. Major Hall 
" did not tell those Union men that he was in fiivor of 
" secession, but he depicted in the most vivid colors 
" the horrors of disunion, the weakness of Alabama, 
" and in fact everything that would or could deter them 
" from going for secession." 

Such was the meaning of co-operation with Fitzpat- 
RiCK and Hall. The vote of Autauga was G03 for 
Hall and G2G for his opponent. Thus only twelve 
votes decided that a county adjoining the home of Mr. 
Yancey should not be represented by a delegate who 
would make one more effort to save the Union. 

The resolutions adopted by primary meetings nomi- 
nating candidates, also indicate the character of co- 
operation. Luke Pryor and Thos. J. McCleland, dis- 
tinguished lawyers, were nominated to represent Lime- 
stone county in the State Convention. The following 



486 THlfi CttADLE Of" THE CONFEDERACY. 

resolution characterized the spirit of the nominating 
Convention : 

" Resolved, That we favor a Convention of the fifteen 
" slaveholding States, to consider what is best to be 
" done, trusting that there is yet a reasonable ground 
' for a peaceable solution of all differences between the 
" North and the South inside of the Union and the 
" Constitution." 

TusKALoosA county adopted a similar resolution : 

" Resolved, That we hold it to be our duty— /rs/, 
*' to use all honorable exertions to secure our rights in the 
« Union * *." 

What was thought to be the tendency of the Co-op- 
erationists is shown by this extract from a leading 
article of the Advertiser : 

" But they do not attempt at first to advocate open 
" submission. That may take wiuh a few real estate 
" speculators in the town, who are afraid of a temporary 
" depreciation in the price of their lots, but the honest 
" countryman, who thinks himself a white man, and 
" the equal of any other white man, has a prejudice 
" against negro equality, and will never consent to be 
" ruled by an Abolitionist and a free negro. No, the 
" friends of Mr. Lincoln's Administration will not advo- 
" cate open submission, they will talk about acting with 
" the entire South, they will try to get Alabama to wait 
" until all the slave States are ready to go out." 

The Northern press also understood that the contest 
being waged in Alabama was like that of 1850, between 
secession on the one side and Union on the other. The 
New York Ti7nes said : 

" In truth, all the indications we are now receiving 
" from Alabama are to the effect that the sentiment 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 487 

" favorable to co-operation is decidedly in the ascend- 
"ant. This is a happy symptom. Co-operation 
" means delay — delay involves reflection, conciliation, 
*' and possible satisfaction ; and if those act with sufFi- 
" cient vigor to prevent other States from following the 
" lead of South Carolina, it is impossible, in the nature 
" of things commercial, economical and political, for that 
" solitary republic to persist through six months in her 
" experimental independence. Before the energies of 
"coercion would be applied, she would be an eager 
" suppliant for re-admission. The more we hear of 
" co-operation, the less we have to fear from disunion." 

The editor of the local paper describing the election 
in Tallapoosa county, said : 

" The Separate State Actionists were defeated in this 
" county on the 24th Dec, by a decided majority, by 
" the Co-operationists. And since their victory, some 
" of the sub-Co-operationists have come out in their true 
" colors. Some talk about shouldering their muskets 
"and offering their services to the General Govern- 
" ment. in coercing South Carolina to remain in the 
" Union. Others say they prefer to live under Lin- 
" coin to Buchanan. Others glory in the idea that they 
" have lived in the Union all their lives thus fiir, and 
" wish to continue in it, no matter who is President. 
" And we have heard of another still, who exulted on 
" account of Lincoln's election, because, he said, it 
" would free all the negroes, and then poor white men 
" could get better wages." 

In the Co-operation party could be found, as a mat- 
ter of course, all those who were determined to main- 
tain the Union in any event, and all those who were 
deterred from secession through cowardice ; but these 



488 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

men did not give character to the party. The party 
were primarily in favor of saving the Union. All 
their hopes and efforts were fixed upon that end. But 
they were also intent upon presenting a united South 
and demanding guaranties from the North such as 
would pacify the apprehensions of the people. The 
conditions or their equivalent upon which the Co-opera- 
tion party were willing to abide by the existing Union, 
as specified in the minority report of the Convention, 
were — 1. A faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave 
Law ; 2. A more effective provision for the surrender 
of criminals escaping from one State to another ; 3. A 
guaranty that slavery shall not be abolished in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia or in any place over which Congress 
has exclusive jurisdiction ; 4. A guaranty that the 
inter-slave trade shall not be interfered with ; 5. A 
protection to slavery in the Territories while they are 
Territories, and a guaranty that they may be admitted 
to the Union with or without slavery as they may wish ; 
6. The right of transit through free States with slave 
property ; 7. The foregoing guaranties to be irrepeal- 
able. 

It was provided in the report that this basis of set- 
tlement was not to be regarded as mandatory, but 
simply as an indication of the wishes of the Convention 
to which the proposed delegates should conform as 
nearly as possible. Evidently the views of the Co- 
operationists as here expressed were satisfactorily met 
by, and were probably based upon, the Crittenden 
Compromise measures then pending in Congress. 

On the 19th of December, but a few weeks before 
the Alabama Convention met, Mr. Crittenden pre- 
sented to the U. S. Senate a series of resolutions provi- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDEEACY 489 

ding — 1. A restoration of the Missouri Compromise 
line ; 2. A prohibition against the abolition of slavery 
by Congress in places owned by the United States 
within the limits of slave-holding States ; 3. That 
Congress shall not abolish slavery in the District of 
Columbia without the consent of Maryland and of the 
owner of the slaves ; 4. That Congress shall not inter- 
dict the transportation of slaves from one slave State 
to another ; 5. That the United States shall be respon- 
sible for the escape and loss of fugitive slaves ; 6. That 
these provisions shall be unchangeable. 

It is probable that the adoption of these resolutions 
would have sent a majority of anti-secessionists to the 
Alabama Convention ; but the Restrictionists appeared 
determined to defeat them. At first the feeling among 
the politicians at the North was for a settlement upon 
the Crittenden Compromise. Petitions flowed into 
Congress in unusual numbers from all parts of the 
North asking for its adoption. It was believed at the 
outset that Mr. Seward was favorable to it. Senator 
PuGH, of Ohio, declared his beUef that it was approved 
by an overwhelming majority of the people of his State 
and of nearly every other State. Senator Douglas en- 
dorsed it in a most eloquent appeal. Senators Davis 
and TooiMBS, and indeed all the Southern Senators, 
except IvERsoN and Wigfall, believed that the Com- 
promise would be acceptable to the South, and were in 
favor of it. Senator Bigler, after the defeat of the 
Compromise in the Committee of Thirteen, said : 

" When the struggle was at its height in Georgia 
" between Robert Toombs for secession and A. H. Ste- 
" phens against it, had these men in the Committee of 
" Thirteen, who are now so blameless in their own estima- 



490 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" tion, given us their votes, or even three of them, Ste- 
" phens would have defeated ToOmbs and secession 
" would have been prostrated. I heard Toombs say to 
" Douglas that the result in Georgia was staked on the 
" action of the Committee of Thirteen. If it accepted 
" the Crittenden proposition, Stephens would defeat 
" him ; if not, he would carry the State by 40,000 ma- 
"jority. The three votes from the Republican side 
" would have carried it at any time ; but Union and 
" peace in the balance against the Chicago platform 
" were sure to be found wanting." 

Mr. Seward gave the cue for the defeat of the Com- 
promise in his speech at New York on the 22d of Dec. 
He treated the position of the South as simply a politi- 
cal threat which it was not worth while to notice. 
He said that, in his opinion, the secession of South 
Carohna would not be followed by many other States, 
and would not be persevered in long. Everything 
looked brighter than on the 6th of November, and 
" sixty days more suns will give you a much brighter 
"and more cheerful atmosphere." Forthwith the Re- 
publican party professed to treat the danger as a mere 
bagatelle. The New York Tribune wished to know 
whether the party was " to convict itself of having 
" either been a rank hypocrite before the election or of 
" being a skulking craven now." Mr. Chase, in a 
letter from the Peace Congress, avowed the purpose of 
his party " to use the power while they had it, and 
" prevent a settlement." " Don't yield an inch," 
became the cry of the Republican press. 



CHAPTER XA^III. 



Effect of SewarcPs Speech— The Vote for Delegates to the 
Secession Convention — Meeting of the Alabama Con- 
vention — Caucus at Washington — Excitement in the 
Convention— Parties Nearly Equally Divided — Refusal 
to Submit the Ordinance to the People — Yancey\s 
Threatening Speech — Counter Threats, etc., etc. 



" I expressly said that now was not the occasion lor the application of 
any doctrine of coercion ; but by some strange misunderstanding I am 
represented as a determined and fierce advocate of coercion upon the 
seceding States."— |J. J. Crittenden, Senate Jan. 23, 1861. 

" And should the Northern vote (which is not among the possibilities) 
reject so fair a compromise [the Crittenden Compromise] then the entire 
Middle States, whose sentiments you so nobly vindicate, would be am- 
ply justified before the world and posterity, in casting their lot with their 
more Southern brethren."— [Horatio Seymour's Letter to Crittenden. 
Jan. 18, 1861. 

The speech of Mr. Seward was made Dec. 22d, and 
the election for members of the Alabama Convention was 
held Dec. 24th ; but notwithstanding the hostile attitude 
of the Republicans in repelling all proffers for an amicable 
adjustment, the returns of the election showed that nearly, 
if not quite, a majority of the people, were 'favorable to 
continued efforts to preserve the Union before resorting 
to a separation. It is almost impossible to arrive at a 
correct knowledge of the meaning of the vote, or the 
relative strength of the parties. The separate secession 
journal at the capital computed the vote at 36,000 for 
secession and 27,000 for co-operation, whereas the 
opposition journal computed it at 24,000 for secession 
and 33,00(j for co-opemtion. The difference in their 



4d2 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

estimates arises from the fact that in certain counties 
where two sets of candidates were before the people, it 
was assumed that one set was for separate secession 
and the other set were for co-operation — whereas, both 
sets might have been for secession or both for co-opera- 
tion. In some counties it was known that one set of 
candidates was for co-operation and another for unquali- 
fied Union. In other counties it was known that votes 
cast for a third candidate against two secessionists was 
simply an expression of dislike for one of the candi- 
dates, and was not an expression for co-operation. In 
some of the counties, there being none but secession 
candidates, a small vote was polled. In other counties 
there was similarly a small vote polled for the co-opera- 
tion candidates. In one or two counties which were 
undoubtedly opposed to separate secession, the parties 
compromised, as it was called, upon prominent citizens 
who were elected without pledges, but who at the meet- 
ing of the Convention were found to be for immediate 
and separate secession, when they were supposed by 
their constituents to be favorable to another effort to 
preserve the Union. Thus it was that the number of 
secessionists or of co-operationists who were elected to 
the Convention was not an accurate index of the senti- 
ment of the* people. Certain it is, however, that in this 
momentous election the highest number of votes 
claimed to have been polled for secession candidates 
was but 36,000 out of a population which at the prece- 
ding Presidential election had polled more than 90,000 
votes. 

The Convention met and organized on the 7th of 
January, 1861, in the Hall of the House of Represen- 
tatives at the State Capitol at Montgomery. Of the 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 493 

one hundred delegates, not one was absent, so great 
was the anxiety to participate in the first action of the 
Convention, and so great was the doubt as to which 
party had secured the victory. On Sunday night it 
was believed that the Co-operation party was in the 
ascendancy, but on Monday, when the Convention met, 
it was known that there wer<e 54 members for secession 
and 46 for co-operation. The first day was occupied 
with debating the resolution of resistance to the Lincoln 
Administration, to which reference has already been 
made. While the co-operation members in their re- 
marks upon Mr. Whatley's resolution did not withdraw 
their opinion that an effort should be made to preserve 
the Union by co-operation of the slave-holding States, 
they exhibited an uncertainty of expression and 
a confusion of purpose which bordered upon timidity. 
The clamor of the populace was in their ears. The 
young blood of the State was at fever heat. The 
Crittenden Compromise had been insolently rejected by 
an unanimous vote of the Republicans. Only two days 
before, the compromise proposition agreed upon by the 
border States had received only one vote in the Re- 
publican caucus, and the door of reconciliation upon 
any plan whereby the rights of the South could be 
guaranteed, was closed, it seemed, forever. If the 
united Southern members of Congress, of the Peace 
Congress and of the border States Convention, would 
not be listened to, was there any hope that an appeal 
by a Congress of co-operative slave States would meet 
with a better reception ? 

On the day before the Alabama Convention met the 
Senators from those of the Southern States which had 
called Conventions, met in caucus in Washington and 



494 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

adopted resolutions favoring immediate secession and 
recommending the holding of a Congress of all the 
seceding States at Montgomery on the 15th of Februa- 
ry. These resollitions were telegraphed to the Con- 
ventions of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. South 
Carolina had already seceded, and her Commissioner, 
Andrew P. Calhoun, was in waiting to address the 
Alabama Convention. To confuse the public mind 
still more, and to intricate the plain question of what 
was best to be done for the interest of the people of the 
State, the Governor had seized Fort Morgan and Fort 
Gaines at the mouth of Mobile Bay, and the U. S. Arse- 
nal at Mount Vernon, and had garrisoned them with 
Alabama troops, while the State was yet a member of 
the Union. Thus while the Co-operationists were ear- 
nestly desirous and constantly voted to secure a plan 
by which disunion might be averted, they were met by 
all the adverse weapons that ever assailed a patriotic 
body of men. As Southerners they were entreated to 
prevent the coercion of South Carolina. As Alabam- 
ians they could not witness their State authorities 
arraigned for treason in seizing the forts whose guns 
might have been turned at any time against their lib- 
erties. As men they could not brook the insolence of 
the Republican party, which contemptuously spurned 
every overture towards a settlement. 

On the second day of the Convention, Jan. 8th, Mr. 
Calhoun presented his credentials and delivered an 
effective address. He asked Alabama to unite with 
South CaroHna and form a Union of the Cotton States. 
So confident was he of the strength of the Cotton States 
alone, that he said : "An Union at the earliest day 
" between them, will guarantee success. We cannot be 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 495 

" conquered ; but united we will hurl defiance at our 
" assailants.' Mr. Watts laid before the Convention a 
telegraphic despatch from Messrs. Moore and Clopton, 
members of Congress — " The Republicans in the House 
'' to-day refused to consider the border States Compro- 
" mise, complimented Major Anderson, and pledged to 
" sustain the President," and another from Messrs. A. 
F. Hopkins and F. M. Gilmer, Commissioners to Vir- 
gina : " Legislature passed by 1 1 2 to 5 to resist any 
" attempt to coerce a seceding State by all the means 
" in her power. What has your Convention done ? 
" Go out promptly, and all will be right." The excite- 
ment within the Convention was beginning to grow as 
intense as that upon the streets. The vestibule was 
crowded with an animated mass of citizens, eager to 
hear the latest bulletin from Washington or to catch an 
opinion from a member. The President laid before the 
Convention a despatch from Commissioner " E. W. 
Pettus : "Jackson, Miss., Jan. 7. — A resolution has 
" been passed to raise a committee of fifteen to draft 
"the ordinance of secession," and " The Convention 
" met at 12, Mr. Barry is President. The State will 
" probably secede to-morrow or next day ;" also, a 
despatch from Commissioner E. C Bullock : " Con- 
" vention (Florida) by a vote of 162 to 5 adopted res- 
" oiutions in favor of immediate secession. Committee 
" appointed to prepare ordinance of secession." The 
Virginia Commissioners telegraphed : " Our friends 
" here think the immediate secession of Alabama, not 
" postponed to any future time, would exerciee a favor- 
" able, perhaps a controlling effect, on the secession of 
"Virginia." Mr. Watts presented a despatch from 
Pensacola : " Send us 500 men immediately "; and 



496 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

another, " Shall United States armed vessels be per- 
" mitted to enter harbor ? If so, shall they be fired on 
" and destroyed ?" 

Mr. Yancey offered a resolution that the Governor 
be instructed to send 500 volunteers to the Governor 
of Florida, with a view to taking possession of the forts 
at Pensacola. This resolution was opposed by the Co- 
operationists on the ground that both Florida and Ala- 
bama were still members of the Union. It was adopted 
by a vote of 52 to 45. 

' The third day of the Convention, Jan. 9th, opened 
with increased and growing excitement. Mr. Davis, of 
Madison, offered a resolution that the action of the 
Convention should be submitted to the people for rati- 
fication. It was rejected by a strict party vote. The 
argument of the minority was based upon the small 
vote cast for the secession delegates, and upon the 
uncertain character of the election. They asked how 
.can the wishes and the views of the people of the State 
be clearly and satisfactorily ascertained ? All parties 
contend that the election of delegates was not a satis- 
factory indication of the views of the people. Even if 
it was held to be so, it would not absolve them [the 
Convention] from the duty of submitting their action to 
the people for approval or disapproval. That is the 
only fair and satisfactory mode of arriving at the wishes 
and the views of the people. In the late canvass there 
was but little time afforded for discussion and investi- 
gation ; no plans or details of plans were spread before 
the people ; and in many counties the candidates occu- 
pied no definite and clear position. One man may have 
voted for one fi'om personal firiendship ; another, under 
the impression that he was casting his vote for a co- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 497 

operationist, while another may have voted for the same 
person as being a Secessionist. But the submission of 
their action to a direct vote of the people would leave 
no room to doubt the drift of the popular current, and 
would satisfy every one, both at home and abroad, 
what views the people of Alabama entertain as to her 
duty at this time. Such a course would not merely 
give great moral force to the position assumed by the 
State, but it would powerfully tend to harmonize and 
weld together our own people. It will conciliate and 
disarm the minority, to thus give them an undoubted 
demonstration that they are in a minority, and to have 
this all done fairly and openly, and without any legis- 
lative jugglery or political wire-drawing. 

So much for the question of policy. As to the 
question of law, the Co-operationists argued that neither 
the General Assembly nor Gov. Moore had the right 
to call a State Convention. The Legislature is not 
supreme. It is only one of the instruments of that 
absolute sovereignty which resides in the whole body of 
the people. Like other departments of the Govern- 
ment, it acts under delegated authority and cannot 
rightfully go beyond the limits assigned to it. This 
delegation of powers has been made by a fundamental 
law which no one department of the Government nor 
all the departments united have authority to change. 
That can only be done by the people themselves. A 
power was given to the Legislature to propose amend- 
ments to the Constitution which, when approved and 
ratified by the people, become a part of the fundamen- 
tal law. But no power was given to the Legislature to 
call a Convention for any purpose whatever. That is a 
measure which must come from and be the act of thq 



498 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

people themselves. Neither the calling of a Conven- 
tion, nor a Convention itself, is a proceeding under the 
Constitution. Instead of acting under the forms and 
within the hmits prescribed by that instrument, the 
very business of a Convention is to change those 
forms and boundaries as the public interests may seem 
to require. A Convention is not a government mea- 
sure, but a movement of the people having for its 
object a change, either in whole or part, of the existing 
form of government. As the people had not only 
omitted to confer any power on the Legislature to call 
a Convention, but had prescribed another mode of 
amending the organic law, it was held by the Co-opera- 
tionists that the call for the Convention was of no more 
binding force than if it had been made by a hundred 
private citizens. Nothing done by it could be of 
binding eifect until ratified by the people. It would 
have been perfectly proper if the General Assembly 
had submitted at the outset to the people the question 
of " Convention " or " No Convention." Had the 
people voted for " Convention," then the present body 
would have been sovereign, and its acts need not be 
referred to the people for ratification. But as the people 
had not called the Convention, it occupied simply the 
position of an advisory body. The fact that a majority 
of the people voted at the election for delegates, did not 
validate the call made by the Legislature. In the 
Michigan case, Mr. Calhoun had denied that the going 
to the polls of any number of people and the voting for 
delegates could constitute a legitimate Convention. A 
majority of those voting might be opposed to a Con- 
vention, but at the same time solicitous of proper rep- 
jesentation should the Convention be held legal. The 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY 499 

New York Council of Revision, in 1820, composed of 
Justices Kent and Spencer and Governor Clinton, had 
vetoed a bill calling a State Convention without sub- 
mitting to the people the question of expediency 
whether the Convention should be called or not, and 
from that day to the present it had been held most 
consonant to the principles of free govei-nment that 
the people should first vote upon a legislative act 
recommending a Convention. It was monstrous that a 
partisan majority in the Legislature should be conceded 
the power to call a sovereign Convention, designate the 
number of members and the districts to be represented, 
and that such Convention representing Districts framed 
with special reference to returning a partisan majority, 
should have unlimited power for any length of time it 
might choose to sit. The people of Alabama should 
have been permitted to say whether they wished a Con- 
vention ; but now that the opportunity had passed, they 
should be allowed to say whether the acts of an im- 
properly called Convention should be ratified and thus 
legalized. Thus argued the Co-operatioi lists. 

To this it was replied by the Secessionists that it 
had been established by precedents that in the silence 
of a Constitution as to the calling of a Convention, the 
General Assembly of a State was the legitimate author- 
ity for the issuance of such a call ; that although the 
Voting by the people of " Convention " or " No Conven- 
" tion " had often been made a sine qua non to'the meet- 
ing of a Convention, many had assembled without such 
condition precedent and had exercised supreme power, 
and the ordinances adopted by such Conventions had 
been recognized by all the Courts as legitimate and 
binding. In the case of Alabama, a majority of her 



500 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

people had voted for delegates to this Convention. Of 
90,000 voters more than 60,000 had voted at the 
election, and many thousands more would have voted 
had there been any opposition in their counties to the 
candidates. Certainly this was the voice of the sover- 
eign people. As to submitting the ordinance of seces- 
sion to the people for ratification, it was only necessary 
to say that the Constitution of Alabama under which 
they were then living had never been submitted to the 
people for ratification. Indeed, the Constitution of the 
United States itself was never submitted to the people. 
It was urged also, especially by Mr. Yancey, that 
policy dictated that there should be no delay in com- 
pleting the work. Said he : " We have gone too far to 
" recede with dignity and self-respect. Such submis- 
" sion involves delay dangerous to our safety. It 
" could not well be efiected before the 4th of March." 
The argument from the inconvenience of delay decided 
the question. It is almost needless to say that what 
was a matter of doubt when the delegates were elected, 
was no longer so after Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, 
Georgia and Texas had followed the steps of South Car- 
olina. The martial spirit of the people had been 
aroused. The Republicans had rejected all overtures. 
The fife and the drum was being heard along the sea- 
board. The Northern press was saying " Let them 
" go !" Mr. Seward had declared at New York that* 
for every old State which went out a new one was 
ready to come in, as though all that wished to go would 
be cheerfully and peaceably spared. Had the ordi- 
nance of secession under such cii:cumstances been sub- 
mitted to the people of Alabama, there is little doubt 
that it would have been ratified by a large majority. 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 501 

After the Convention had voted against submitting 
its action to the people, a resolution was offered by Mr. 
Coleman, of Sumter, pledging the power of Alabama to 
aid in resisting any attempt upon the part of the United 
States to coerce a seceding State. In behalf of this 
resolution it was argued that a State has the right to 
secede, and if in her sovereign capacity she determines 
to resume her independence, the other States which 
have a common interest in the protection of this right, 
must come to her defence. Mr. Morgan, of Dallas, 
said : " The effect of the resolution is, that South Caro- 
" lina may recruit her armies in Alabama, and that our 
" treasury shall stand open to her demands so long as 
" she shall need the means of defence and protection." 
Mr. Stone, of Pickens, said : " The Convention which 
" framed the Constitution expressly refused to grant to 
" the General Government the power to employ force 
" against a State." He declared his belief that the 
passage of the resolution would give strength to the 
Southern cause. " It may secure peace," said he, " if 
" the government at Washington is informed that the 
" coercive policy with which South .Carolina is now 
" threatened will be resisted, and that the first Federal 
" gun fired against Charleston will summon to the 
" field every Southern man who can bear arms. It may 
" produce a peaceful solution of the pending difficul- 
" ties." 

Mr. Yancey was urgent that the resolution should 
pass at once. It appeared to him that anti-coercion 
was a doctrine upon which every Southern man could 
stand. Hardly a prominent law writer from the ear- 
liest days of the Republic to within a few years past, 
but had denied the right of the Federal Government to 



502 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

coerce a State. He had looked for opposition at other 
points, but here he expected to see a united South. To 
his chagrin he found the co-operation party a unit 
against giving the pledge he wished to transmit with 
lightning speed to his native South Carolina. Mr. 
Earnest, of Jefferson, said : " I fully recognize the 
" doctrine^ that a sovereign State, acting in her sover- 
" eign capacity, can withdraw or secede from the 
" Union ; and that after that any acts she or her citi- 
" zens may do to protect her rights or to defend her 
" independence, even to bloody war, is not and cannot 
" be treason. But the State must . act in her sovereign 
" capacity ; no other act by any body or individuals 
" can withdraw her from the Union or relieve her citi- 
" zens from the laws of treason, if overt acts are com- 
" mitted by the citizen or the State against the Gen- 
" eral Government." Langunge equally as explicit 
was uttered by Mr. Jones, of Lauderdale. " Wait, at 
" least," he said, " until to-morrow, when it is 
" morally certain that the ordinance of secession will be 
" passed, and the mem hoi's of tiiis Convention ab- 
" solved by the sovereign authority of Alabama fi'om 
" their allegiance to the Federal Government. Until the 
" State so absolved him he could not and would not 
" vote for resolutions proposing to declare war on the 
" Government of the United States." Mr. Smith, of 
Tuskaloosa, said : " An assurance by a bare majority 
" of this Convention of aid to be given by the State of 
" Alabama, would be considered by :-'outh Carolina 
" almost an insult. She might be delighted at first to 
" hear and receive such an assurance ; but when she 
" learned the fact that the resolution had been adopteil 
" by a bare majority, she would be inspired with dis- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 503 

" gust ; and she would swell with indignation if it 
" should appear (as it may upon a calm and thorough 
*' examination, and a comparison of the facts and 
" figures) that the minority here were really the repre- 
" sentatives of a majority of the sovereigns of this 
"State." 

The gentleman who used this language was the Hon. 
Wm. R. Smith, who had been a Circuit Judge, and had 
served three terms as a Representative in Congress, 
having been elected for his second term over two of 
the most prominent lawyers of the State and with every 
newspaper of the District against him. He thoroughl}'^ 
understood the people. Mr. Yancey immediately 
leaped to his feet and demanded the authority upon 
which Judge Smith had stated that the minority of the 
Convention represented a majority of the people. " I 
" receive my information," was the reply, " from tables 
" in the public prints ; I do not assert them to be true, 
" but I believe that a popular majority of the State is 
'' represented here by the minority." Mr. Yancey had 
been restive under the powerful opposition which met 
him at every step. He now lost patience. One oi- 
the other party in this controversy, if the legitimacy of 
the Convention was to be brought in question, must go 
to the wall. If the powerful minority in the Conven- 
tion believed that they represented the majority of the 
people, and that an ordinance of secession, passed by a 
Convention which had not been called together by a 
vote of the people, would have no binding efl'ect in law 
or morals, the result might be that two governments 
would be established in the State, and all the hori'ors 
of civil war be burst upon the people. It was necessary 
for Mr. Yancey and his friends to boldly and untlinch- 



504 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

ingly maintain that the Convention was sovereign, and 
that whatever it did by the smallest majority was 
supreme law for all the people. " If the ordinance 
" should pass by the meagre majority of one,'' said the 
impulsive and excited orator, " it will represent the 
" fiiUness and the power and the majesty of the sover- 
" eign people of Alabama. When it shall be the 
" supreme organic law of the people of Alabama, the 
" State upon that question will know no majority or 
'^ minority among her people, but will expect and 
" demand and secure unlimited and unquestioned obedi- 
" ence to that ordinance." Any one daring to array 
himself against the ordinance after its passage, would 
be a traitor to Alabama ; he would occupy towards the 
true people of the State the relation which the Tories 
bore to the Whigs of the Revolution. However such 
men might be aided by Abolition forces, he believed 
that they and their unnatural allies would be defeated 
by the patriotic citizens of the State. Thus for an 
hour Mr. Yancey proceeded in a torrent of invective 
against those who should doubt the supremacy of the 
proposed ordinance when adopted. His speech threw 
the Convention into the highest excitement. 

Mr. Watts, who saw the impolicy of the speech of 
his colleague, rose and expressed his regrets at its tone 
and apparent temper. This was no time for the exhi- 
bition of feeling or for the utterance of denunciations. 
He hoped the resolution would be postponed, so that on 
the morrow it might be passed by a unanimous vote of 
the Convention. But Mr. Watts could not eradicate 
the sting of the preceding speech. Mr. Jemison wished 
to know for whom and by what authority Mr. Yancey 
spoke when he threatened to apply to those who might 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERAOT. 50^ 

oppose the ordinance of secession the nomenclature of 
the Revolution. Nothing that the minority had said or 
done justified such sentiments. They were unprovoked 
and uncalled for, and unbecoming any gentleman on 
the floor. Here Mr. Yancey arose and the President 
called Mr. Jemison to order, whereupon he took his 
seat. There was great confusion throughout the hall, 
and Mr. Yancey was also called to order by the Presi- 
dent. When order was restored, Mr. Jemison continued 
by saying that it was his earnest desire to see good 
feeling and harmony, " but, sir, when the great leader 
'' of the majority shall call the minority party tories, 
" shall denounce us as traitors, and pronounce against 
" us a traitor s doom, were I to pass it in silence the 
'' world would properly consider me worthy of the 
" denunciation and the doom." Mr. Yancey explained 
that his remarks were not applicable to or intended for 
the minority of this Convention ; they were intended 
for those in certain portions of the State where it was 
said the ordinance of secession, if passed, would be 
resisted. Mr. Jemison continued — '' I am glad, Mr. 
" President, to hear the gentleman disclaim any impu- 
" tation of disloyalty to the minority in this Convention. 
" But has he bettered it by transferring it to the great 
" popular masses in certain sections of the State, where 
" there is strong opposition to the ordinance of seces- 
" sion and where it is said it will be resisted ? Will 
" the gentleman go into those sections of the State and 
" hang all who are opposed to secession ? Will he 
" hang them by families, by neighborhoods, by towns, 
" by counties, by Congressional Districts ? Who, sir, 
" will 2;ive the bloody order ? Who will be your exe- 
" cutioner ? Is this the spirit of Southern chivalry ? 



^06 TBE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

'' Are these the sentiments of the boasted champions of 
" Southern rights ? Are these to be the first fruits of 
" a Southern Republic ? Ah ! is this the bloody 
" charity of a party who seek to deliver our own 
" beloved sunny South from the galling yoke of a fanat- 
" ical and puritanical abolition majority ? What a 
" commentary on the charity of party majorities ! The 
" history of the Reign of Terror furnishes not a par- 
" allel to the bloody picture shadowed forth in the 
" remarks of the gentleman. I envy him not its con- 
" templation. For the interests of our common coun- 
" try I would drop the curtain over the scene, and 
" palsied be the hand that ever attempts to lift it." 
Mr. Nicholas Davis, of Madison, followed Mr. Jemi- 
SON. The father of Mr. Davis had been the leader of 
the Whigs of North Alabama from the day when the 
State was admitted to the Union. Twice had he been 
an unsuccessful candidate for Governor. The son 
possessed the father's eloquence, spirit and devotion to 
the Union. He said : " . r. President, I cannot allow 
*' this occasion to pass without saying a word in repl}' 
" to what has fallen from the gentleman from Mont- 
" gomery (Mr. Yancey.) Under other circumstances, 
" his remarks might pass unnoticed ; but 1 feel I owe 
" it to those I represent, at least, to state correctly the 
" position they hold upon the question so unexpectedly 
*• brought before this body. I claim, sir, to know their 
" views, and I say to this Convention that they have 
" not intended to resist its action when in conformity 
" to the wishes of the people of the State. The ques- 
" tion with them, sir, is. does the Convention represent 
" the will of the people ? If it does, they will stand by 
'' it, no matter what its decision may be. Now, sii-, I 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 507 

" need scarcely say that the act of this Convention 
•' will not be conclusive in this matter. And why ? 
"' Because, as every one knows, the popular vote of 
" this State may be one way, the Convention another, 
" and this resulting from the manner in which it was 
" called by those who are guilty of an usurpation of 
" power. In short, Mr. President, the sovereignty of 
" this body is denied, and its action will be sustained or 
" resisted as the popular will may be reflected through 
" it. The gentleman from Montgomery (Mr. Yancey) 
" asserts upon the authority of a newspaper statement, 
" the vote to be one way ; the gentleman from Tuska- 
•^ loosa, (Mr. Smith,) upon like authority, claims it to 
" be another. I submit, sir, in deciding a question of 
" such moment, that the proof on either side is unsat- 
" isfactoiy. The people of the State will so regard it* 
" We have the means in our hands of ascertaining 
" their will by submitting our action for their ratifica- 
" tion or rejection ; and should a course so manifestly 
"just be refiised, a committee of this body, with the 
" evidence at the door, can arrive at a satisfactory con- 
" elusion. In either event, I pledge those I represent 
" to stand by the expressed will of the people. I repeat 
" that I know this to be the position of my constituents, 
" and such, so far as my knowledge extends, is the 
" position of the people in North Alabama." At this 
point Mr. Yancey interrupted Mr. Davis by saying 
that he (Yancey) had said nothing about the people of 
North Alabama. Mr. Davis continued : " No, sir, you 
" did not, but it is very well understood by every 
" member upon this floor to whom your remarks were 
" applicable. If it should turn out that the popular 
" vote is against the act of secession, should it pass, I 



508 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" tell you, sir, that I believe it will and ought to be 
" resisted. The minority of this State ought not to 
" control the majority. But we are told that this is a 
" representative government — not a pure Democracy, 
'' and in this form minorities may rule. If our State 
*' Government be representative in this sense, who 
" made it so ? The people, who in Convention framed 
" its Constitution and organic law. They set it on 
" foot, and whilst it moves in the orbit which they pre- 
" scribed, I grant that it is representative and has the 
" feature which it is claimed. Secession, however, 
" destroys that Constitution, and the people are muz- 
*' zled in this Convention by a Legislature which derived 
" its existence from the instrument to be destroyed. 
" But I do not propose to discuss this matter. Judging 
" from the speech of the gentleman from Montgomery, 
" this is not the mode in which it is to be decided. We 
" are told, "sir, by him, that resistance to the action of 
" this Convention is treason, and those who undertake 
" it ti-aitors and rebels. The nomenclature of the Rev- 
" olution is to be revived, and the epithet of Tory in 
'* future may ornament the names of Alabamians. I 
" cannot accept this as applicable to my constituents ; 
" nor do I perceive the fitness or force of the intended 
" illustration. The Whigs of the Revolution were the 
" friends of this Government, the Tories its enemies. 
" If names shall hold the same relation to the Govern- 
" ment now as then, I shall have no objection to the 
" historical reminiscence. And not less odious in my 
" estimation than the name of Tort/^ is the doctrine 
" which is claimed of the right to coerce an unwilling 
" people. We must be dealt with as public enemies. 
" But yesterday this Convention condemned this doc- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 509 

" trine. With one voice you declared against it, and 
" expressed your determination to meet such an 
" invasion of your rights as it ought to be met, with 
" arms in your hands. It will be asserted as readily 
" against a tyrant at home as abroad ; as readily by 
" the people of my section against usurpation and 
" outrage here as elsewhere. And when compelled to 
" take this course, they will cheerfully no doubt assume 
" all the responsibility that follows the act. I seek no 
" quarrel with the gentleman Irom Montgomery or his 
'•' Iriends. Towards them personally, I entertain none 
" other than the kindest feelings. But I tell him, 
" should he engage in that enterprise, that he willnot 
" be allowed to boast the character of an invader. Com- 
" ing at the head of any force he can muster, aided and 
"• assisted by the Executive of this State, we will meet 
" him at the foot of our mountains, and there with his 
'' own selected weapons, hand to hand, and face to face, 
" settle the question of the sovereignty of the people." 
In the midst of deep excitement the Convention 
adjourned without taking action upon the resolution. 
With such evidences of hostility to the manner in 
which the Convention was called, and to its refusal to 
submit its action to the people, what would happen on 
the morrow ? Would the minority, claiming to repre- 
sent a majority of the people, secede from the Con- 
vention and defy the Act of Secession ? There were 
many sleepless eyes in Montgomery on the night of 
Ihc 0th of January, 1861. What would the morrow 
bring forth ? 



CH^I^TER XIX. 



Adoption of the Ordiname of tievesdon — Popular Enthusi- 
asm — Union of all Classes of the People — Assembling 
of the Southern Congress at Montgomery — Arrival of 
President Davis — Eatif cation by the Alabama, Con 
vention of the Confederate Constitution — Conclusion. 



" The effect of this [Lincoln's Proclamation of April 15, 18C1,] upon the 
public mind of the Southern States cannot be described or even estima- 
ted- * * Up to this lime a majority, I think, of those who had favored 
the policy of secession, had done so under the belief and conviction that 
it was the surest way of securing a redress of grievances and of bringing 
the Federal Government back to constitutional principles. Many of 
them indulged hopes that a Re-formation or Re-construction of the 
Union would soon take place upon the basis of the new Montgomery 
Constitution ; and that the Union under this would be continued and 
strengthened, or made more perfect, as it had been in 1789 after the with- 
drawal of nine States from the first Union, and the adoption of the Con- 
stitution of 1787. This proclamation dispelled all such hopes. It showed 
that the party in power intended nothing short of complete centraliza- 
tion. There was no longer any divisions amongst the people of the Con- 
federate States."— [A. H. Stephens. 

On the morning of Jan. 10, 1861, the Alabama 
Convention met at the Capitol. The President laid 
before them a despatch from the President of the 
Mississippi Convention announcing that they had 
adopted an ordinance of secession for their State by a 
vote approaching unanimity, and that Mississippi 
desires on the basis of the old Constitution a new 
Union with the seceding States. A despatch from 
Charleston was also read, announcing that a steamer 
with reinforcements for Fort Sumter was fired into by 
the forts, that she was disabled, had retreated and was 
lying at anchor. The despatch suggested, but did not 



612 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. ^ 

vouch for the truth of the statement, that the disabled 
vessel had hauled down her colors. Another despatch 
said : " Anderson, it is said and believed, intends firing 
" upx)n our shipping and cutting oft' communication 
" with the fort." Another said : " Anderson writes to 
" the Governor he will fire into all ships. Governor 
" replies and justifies what we did. Now Anderson 
" replies his mind is changed, and refers the question 
" to Washington." All this was an exciting prelude to 
the grave business of the day. 

Mr. Yancey then, from the Committee of Thirteen, 
reported an ordinance of secession for Alabama, with- 
drawing " all the powers over the territory of said 
" State, and over the people thereof, heretofore delega- 
" ted to the government of the United States of 
" America," and inviting the slave-holding States to 
meet the people of Alabama Feb. 4, 1861, at the city 
of Montgomery, for the purpose of consulting with each 
other as to the most effectual mode of securing con- 
certed and harmonious action in whatever measures 
may be deemed most desirable " for our common peace 
" and security." Mr. Jere Clemens, from the minority 
of the same committee, made a report signed by six of 
the thirteen members. They said that they were 
unable to see in separate State secession the most 
efiectual mode of guarding the honor and securing the 
rights of the State, but that it was becoming to make 
an eflort to obtain the concurrence of all the States 
interested before deciding finally and conclusively upon 
a policy of their own. They contended that in so im- 
portant a matter sound policy dictates that an ordinance 
of secession should be submitted for the ratification and 
approval of the people. The resolutions submitted 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 513 

with this minority report recommended a Convention 
of all the Southern States to meet at Nashville on 
the 22d of February, to consider the wrongs of the 
South and to devise appropriate remedies. A basis of 
settlement was suggested by the resolutions, but not to 
be regarded as absolute and unalterable. If the propo- 
sition for a conference should be rejected by any or all 
of the States, then Alabama should adopt such a plan 
of resistance as might seem best calculated to maintain 
her honor and rights. In the meantime Alabama 
would resist, by all means at her command, any attempt 
on the part of the General Government to coerce a 
seceding State. 

Mr. Clemens moved that the minority report be sub- 
stituted for the majority report. The ayes and noes 
were called upon this motion and resulted — ayes 45, 
noes 54. A change of five votes from the noes to the 
ayes would perhaps have changed the fate of Alabama 
and of the entire South. The Huntsville Advocate had 
said that, " but for the unexpected loss of Autauga and 
" Mobile by bad management, the Co-operationists 
" would have had a majority in the Convention." 
Autauga had one representative and Mobile had four. 
These five votes had it in their power to defeat the 
ordinance. Autauga was the home of Fitzpatrick, 
who had steadily opposed secession. Mobile was the 
home of Forsyth, who in his speech at Hibernia Hall, 
Charleston, at the time of the withdrawal of the South- 
ern delegations, had said that the proceedings there 
would force him against his will to be a " Union man ;" 
that he despised Union shrieking, and had always 
thought that Unionism had gone far enough when a 
man was just and true to States Rights, but it was 
quite certain that the people of the South would meet 
Mr. Yancey's attempt to " precipitate a revolution " 
with a counter revolution to save the country — that 
there were twenty-five thousand good citizens in Ala- 
bama who had never been Democrats who would take 



514 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

a hand to help prevent a dissolution of the Union. 
Writing to the journal of which he was then editor, Mr. 
Forsyth had also said : " The Democratic party has 
" now a double sectional fight in hand North and 
" South. The Union depends on the issue. Heaven 
" defend the right." Mobile county had voted in No- 
vember previous for Mr. Bell, 1,629 votes; for Mr. 
Douglas, 1,828 votes; and for Mr. Breckinridge, 
only 1,541 votes. There were 3,452 votes cast for 
Union candidates against 1,541 for the candidate sup- 
ported by Mr. Yancey. From these and other facts, it 
was believed by many that the minority report would 
have been ratified in preference to Mr. Yancey's ordi- 
nance of secession, had the Convention actually repre- 
sented the voice of the people. 

After the refusal of the Convention to substitute the 
minority for the majority report, Mr. Clemens offered 
a resolution providing that the ordinance of secession 
should not go into operation unless ratified by the 
people. The vote being taken on this proposition, it 
was rejected by the same vote which rejected the mi- 
nority report. Mr. Yancey then moved the adoption 
of the ordinance of secession. The Convention ad- 
journed until next day, the 11th, and then occurred 
one of the most interesting and painful scenes ever wit- 
nessed by a deliberative body sitting upon measures 
involving the life or death of States. The members of 
the minority, before casting their votes, protested 
against the act about to be committed, and each in 
turn raised his warning voice. 

Mr. Clarke, of Lawrence, said : " I will not state 
'' what might produce disruption of the Union ; but, 
" sir, I see as plainly as I see the sun in Heaven, what 
'' that disruption itself must produce. I see it must 
'^ produce war, and such a war I will not describe in its 
<' two-fold character. Once more, therefore, in the 
''name of Liberty, of Peace, of happy hours— of the 
" aged, of the poor, of our mothers, of our sisters^ — of 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 515 

" helpless humanity throughout the borders of our 
" State, I implore you to concede something to the 
" counties of North Alabama." Mr. Posey, of Lauder- 
dale, said : " Division at home would be worse than 
" secession ; this is the opinion of the minority on this 
" floor upon mature reflection." Mr. Jones, of Lauder- 
dale, said : " This had been the most solemn hour of 
" his hfe ; he expected to feel no more solemn when he 
" should stand in the presence of the King of Terrors." 
Mr. Smith, of Tuskaloosa, said : " My opposition to the 
" ordinance of secession will be sufficiently indicated by 
" my vote ; that vote will be recorded in the book ; 
" and the day is not yet come that is to decide on 
" which part of the page of that book will be written 
" the glory or the shame of this day." Mr. Kimball, 
of Tallapoosa, said : " In all my intercourse with my 
" fellow-citizens, I found none who did not cordially 
" desire a united South : not a dissenting voice. In the 
" Advertiser of this morning I find a despatch express- 
" ing the opinion of Gen. Scott, who is said to be the 
" great war-spirit, who unhesitatingly says, that with a 
" certain unanimity of the Southern States, it would be 
" impolitic and improper to attempt coercion." 

Mr. Davis, of Madison, said : " It cannot be denied 
" that circumstances have greatly changed since this 
" Convention met on last Monday. We have seen 
" State after State, in the exercise of its sovereign 
" powers, withdrawing fi'om the Union in the past few 
" days. Florida has seceded ; Mississippi has seceded 
" — each by overwhelming majorities. It is now no 
" longer a serious apprehension that Alabama will stand 
" alone in this movement of secession. It is confidently 
" asserted that Georgia and Louisiana and Texas will 
" follow. Under this aspect of the case, it is not re- 
" markable that a great change has come over the Con- 
" vention — a change clearly indicated by the speeches 
" that have been this day delivered in this hall. I 
" shall vote against the ordinance. But if Alabama 



516 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" shall need the strong arm of her valorous sons to 
" sustain her in any emergency which, on account of 
" this ordinance of secession, may arise within her 
" borders, by which her honor or the rights of her citi- 
" zens are Hkely to be endangered, I say for myself 
" and for my constituents — and I dare say for all 
" North Alabama-:-that I and they will be cheerfully 
" ready to take our part in the conflict. We may not 
" endorse the wisdom of your resolves, but we will 
" stand by the State of Alabama under all circum- 
" stances." 

Mr. Clemens, of Madison, said : " For the present it 
" is enough to say that I am a son of Alabama ; her 
" destiny is mine ; her people are mine ; her enemies 
" are mine. I see plainly enough that clouds and 
" storms are gathering above us ; but when the thunder 
" rolls and lightning flashes, I trust that I shall neither 
" shrink nor cower — neither murmur nor complain. 
" Acting upon the convictions of a life-time, calmly 
" and deliberately I walk with you into revolution. Be 
" its perils,- be its privations, be its sufferings what they 
" may, I share them with you, although as a member 
" of this Convention I opposed your ordinance. Side 
" by side with yours, Mr. President, my name shall 
" stand upon the original roll ; and side by side with 
" you I brave the consequences." 

Mr. Yancey closed the debate with the following 
remarks : 

" Mr. President — If no other gentleman desires to 
" address the Convention, I will exercise the usual par- 
" liamentary privilege accorded to the Chairman of a 
" committee reporting a measure — that of closing the 
" debate, by assigning a few reasons why the measure 
" before you should be adopted. In common with all 
"^ others here, I feel that this is a solemn hour, and I 
" congratulate the Convention that the spirit that pre- 
" vails is both fraternal and patriotic — that whatever of 
" irritation or suspicion had prevailed in the earlier 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 517 

hours of our session, has been, in a great degree, 
' dissipated, and has given way to a juster appreciation 
' of the motives and the conduct of each other. In 
' the committee the majority yielded to the minority 
' all the time that they desired for deliberation ; and 
' since the report has been made, the majority in the 
' Convention has also yielded to the wishes of the mi- 
' nority in this respect, and every delegate who desired 
' to do so, has addressed the Convention in explanation 
' of his vote, and has taken as much time as, in his 
'judgment, was necessary to his purpose. If, in 
' the earlier stages of our proceedings, it has been 
' thought, as it has been said by some gentlemen, that 
an undue celerity of movement was pressed by the 
majority, I beg those gentlemen to believe that this 
conduct on our part was dictated solely by our con- 
victions of duty, and not from any — the least — desire 
to precipitate others into a vote before they were pre- 
pared to give it understandingly. Time was deemed 

■ by the friends of independent State action to be either 
' success or defeat in the inauguration of this great 
' movement — success if there was a prompt and une- 
'quivocal withdrawal fii'om the Union — or, defeat, if 
' time was used to delay and to dishearten. You who 

■ were opposed to such action from a sense of duty, 
' would necessarily be for all such delays as would aid 

■ in accomplishing its defeat ; we who were for it, from 
• a like sense of duty, were necessarily in favor of a 

■ prompt decision of the question. I'^ach has acted, 
' doubtless, upon well-founded ideas of duty. All that 
' was necessary to a better understanding of each other, 
' was a belief in that fatct, a belief in the good faith of 
' each other ; and I rejoice that to-day has furnished 
' ample evidence that we now mutually entertain that 
' belief ; and, on the part of the majority, I return 

thanks to Ihe venerable delegate fiom Lauderdale, 

(Mr. Posey,) who, though compelled to vote against 

' this ordinance, yet has characterized the conduct of 



518 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" the majority in this matter as giving evidence of 
" ' wisdom, discretion, and a spirit of conciliation.' 

" As to the measure itself (the ordinance and reso- 
" lutions), whatever merit it possesses, is the result of 
" consultation between the majority and minority of the 
" committee. I am sure that the members of thut com- 
" mittee will indulge me in alluding to what passed in 
" its sessions. The majority decidedly preferred to 
" adopt a simple ordinance of secession, but determined, 
" for the sake of harmony, to do all in their power to 
" disarm prejudice and to bring about a fraternal feel- 
" ing ; they did not hesitate to yield their own cher- 
" ished desire in this particular, when my friend from 
" Madison (Mr. Clemens) proposed to amend our pro- 
" posed ordinance by adding thereto the preamble and 
" resolutions, which form a part of his report. It is 
" well known that some of the people have been led to 
" believe that the friends of t^ecession desired to erect 
" Alabama either into a monarchy or into an inde- 
" pendent State, repudiating an alliance with other 
" States. As for myself, I can truly declare that I 
" have never met with any friend of secession enter- 
" taining such views. The proposition submitted by 
" my friend from Madison (Mr. Clemens), being in 
" perfect accordance with the wishes and desires of the 
" majority, and amply refuted these misconceptions, 
" the one which we would have preferred to have voted 
" upon separately, was at once agreed to, and the result 
" is the measure now before us for consideration. 

" On the first day of our session a resolution was 
" unanimously adopted declaring that the people of the 
" State would resist the Administration of Lincoln for 
" the causes and upon the principles there enunciated. 
*' On the question of resistance, then, there is no difler- 
" ence in this body. All are for resistance ; but there is 
" a difference between members as to the mode, the 
" manner of resistance. Some believe that when the 
" rights of our people are denied or assailed by the par- 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 519 

" ties to the Federal compact, or by the Government, 
" that secession from this compact is the rightful reme- 
" dy. Others believe that secession is wrong, and that 
" the remedy is revolution. A careliil reading of the 
" ordinance on your table will show that the resistance 
" therein provided may be called revolution, disunion, 
" or secession, as each member may desire. The cap- 
" tion styles it 'An Ordinance to dissolve the Union,' 
" etc. In the body of the ordinance the people of 
*■ the State are ' withdrawn from the comptict,' etc. It 
" is true that the mode of resistance is organic ; it is 
" an organic co-operation, not of States, but of the 
'' people of this State in resistance to wrong. In this 
'' respect it harmonizes differences. Another differ- 
" ence, both in the popular mind and in that of dele- 
" gates, is, that resistance should be by co-operation of 
'' States, and not by independent State action. That 
" difference has been harmonized by the conjunction 
" of the ordinance and resolutions, as reported by the 
" committee. Co-operation and separate State action, 
'" as far as they can be effected under our obligation to 
" the Federal compact and in harmony with the princi- 
" pies of State sovereignty, have been joined in this 
" measure. It is true there are a class of Co-opera- 
" tionists whose views are not met by this measure ; 
" those who have advocated co-operation to secure sub- 
" mission— to defeat resistance. But there are none of 
" that character here. While the friends of indepen- 
" dent State action in this ordinance do obtain a declara- 
" tion as to the rights of the people of Alabama ; and 
" as to our determination to sustain them, the friends 
" of co-operation, for the purpose of effectual resistance, 
'•' also obtain a declaration of our desire and purpose to 
" unite with all of the slaveholding States who enter- 
" tain a like purpose, in confederated or co-operative 
" resistance, and in a (confederate government upon the 
" principles of the Federal Constitution. 

" As lar as it was possible, then, to do so without 



520 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" yielding principles, the friends of resistance have used 
" every reasonable effort to meet on a common ground. 
" And I rejoice in the belief that the effort has been 
" successful, and that there will be a far greater una- 
" nimity manifested when the vote shall be taken on 
" this measure, than was even hoped for when we first 
" met in this hall. From the remarks of gentlemen to- 
" day, many will be compelled to vote against this 
" measure by reason of restrictions of their people, who 
" otherwise would vote for it. I sincerely respect these 
" motives, and think those occupying such positions 
" act correctly in their premises. 

" Mr. President, we are fortunate in having the 
" example of our Revolutionary fathers sustaining the 
" plan of action here proposed — separate State action 
" and then co-operation in confederating together. 
" South Carolina, after several months deliberation, 
" with a view of resisting British aggression, formed a 
" State government early in the year 1776. Virginia 
" did so in June, 1776, declaring her separate and inde- 
" pendent secession from the Government of Great 
" Britain. Afterwards, on the 4th of July, 1776, the 
" Congress of the United States agreed upon and 
" adopted a joint Declaration of Independence. It was 
" after the colonies had acted separately and indepen- 
" dently, that both the Declaration of Independence 
" and the Articles of Confederation and the Constitu- 
" tion of the United States were severally adopted. 
" The friends of independent State action have also 
" cause to congratulate themselves, that as far as the 
" people of the Southern States have spoken, they have 
" unanimously expressed themselves in favor of inde- 
" pendent State action. 

" South Carolina, Mississippi and Florida have each 
" already acted independently. In this Convention a 
" majority are known to be in favor of that kind of 
'' action. We have already received information that 
<' a majority of delegates in favor of such action has 



THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY 521 

" been elected, both in Georgia and Louisiana. I com- 
" mend this significant fact to all who feel disposed to 
" condemn an independent State movement. 

'' Some have been disposed to think that this is a 
" movement of politicians, and not of the people. This 
" is a great error. Who, on a calm review of the past, 
" and reflection upon what is daily occurring, can rea- 
" sonably suppose that the people of South Carolina, 
" Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, 
" who have already elected Conventions favorable to 
" dissolution, and the people of Arkansas, Tennessee, 
" North Carolina and Virginia, who are contemplating 
" an assembling in their several Conventions, have been 
" mere puppets in the hands of politicians ? Who can 
"for a moment thus deliberately determine that all 
" these people in these various States, who are so 
" attached to their government, have so little intelli- 
" gence that they can be thus blindly driven into revo- 
" lution, without cause, by designing and evil-minded 
" men against the remonstrances of conservative men ? 
" No, sir ; this is a great popular movement, based 
" upon a wide-spread, deep-seated conviction that the 
" forms of government have fallen into the hands of a 
" sectional majority, determined to use them for the 
" destruction of the rights of the people of the South. 
" This mighty flood-tide has been flowing from the 
" popular heart for years. You, gentlemen of the 
" minority, have not been able to repress it ; we of the 
" majority have not been able to add a particle to its 
^^ momentum. We are each and all driven forward 
'' upon this irresistible tide. The rod that has smitten 
'' the rock from which this flood flows, has not been in 
" Southern hands. The rod has been Northern and 
'^ sectional aggression and wrong, and that flood-tide 
" has grown stronger and stronger as days and years 
'' have passed away, in proportion as the people have 
" lost all hope of a constitutional and .satisfactory 
" solution of these vexed questions. In this connec- 



522 THE CRADLE OP THE CONFEDERACY. 

" tion I would say a few words upon the proposition to 
" submit the ordinance of dissolution to a popular vote. 
" This proposition is based upon the idea that there is a 
" difference between the people and the delegate. It 
"" seems to me that this is an error. There is a differ- 
" ence between the representatives of the people in the 
" law-making body and the people themselves, because 
" there are powers reserved to the people by the Coii- 
" vention of Alabama, and which the General A^ssembly 
" cannot exercise. But in this body is all power — no 
" powers are reserved from it. The people are here in 
" the persons of their deputies. Life, Liberty and 
" Property are in our hands. Look to the ordinances 
" adopting the Constitution of Alabama. It states ' we, 
" the people of Alabama,' etc., etc. All our acts are 
" supreme, without ratification, because they are the 
" acts of the people acting in their sovereign capacity. 
" As a policy, submission of this ondinance to a popular 
" vote is wrong. In the first place, we have gone too 
" far to recede with dignity and self-respect. It could 
" not well be effected before the 4th of March. The 
" policy is at war with our system of government. 
" Ours is not a pure 'Democracy — that is, a govern- 
" ment by the people ; though it is a government of 
"^the people. Ours is a representative government, 
" and whatever is done by the representative in accord- 
" ance with the Constitution is law ; and whatever is 
" done by the deputy in organizing government, is the 
" people's will. 

" The policy, too, is one of recent suggestion ; if I 
" am not mistaken, it was never proposed and acted 
" upon previous to 1837. Certainly the Fathers did 
" not approve it. The Constitutions of the original 
" Thirteen States were adopted by Conventions, and 
" were never referred to the people. 

" The Constitution of the tJnited States was adopted 
" by the several State Conventions, and in no instance 
" was it submitted to the people for ratification. Coming 



/ 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 523 

" down to a later day, and coming home to the action 
" of our State sires, we find another example against 
" such submission. The Constittition of the State of 
" Alabama was never submitted for popular ratification. 
" One other and most important consideration is, that 
" looking to the condition of the popular mind of the 
" minority of the people on this question, such a course 
" will but tend to keep up strife and contention among 
*' ourselves. Such a submission, it is clear to my mind, 
'* will but result in a triumph of the friends of secession 
" — and an additional amount of irritation and preju- 
" dice be thus engendered in the minds of the defeated 
'• party. Some gentlemen seem to think that in dis- 
" solving the Union we hazard the ' rich inheritance ' 
" bequeathed to us. For one, I make a distinction 
" between our liberties and the powers which have been 
" delegated to secure them. Those liberties have never 
'' been alienated — are inalienable. The State Govern- 
" ments were formed to secure and protect them. The 
'' Federal Government was made the common agent of 
" the States for the purpose of securing them in our 
'"' intercourse with each other and the foreign powers. 
" The course we are about to adopt makes no war on 
" our liberties — nor, indeed, upon our institutions — nor 
" upon the Federal Constitution. It is but a dismissal 
'' of the agent that fii*st abuses our institutions with a 
" view to destroy our lights, and then turns the very 
" powers we delegated to him for our protection against 
" us for our injury. These powers were originally pos- 
"' sessed by the people of the sovereign States, and 
" when the common agent abuses them, it seems to me 
" but the dictate of common sense, as well as an act of 
" self-preservation, that the States should withdraw 
'' and resume them. The ordinance withdraws those 
" once delegated by Alabama, and the resolutions ac- 
" companying it propose to meet our sister States in 
" Convention and to confederate with them on the basis 
" of the very constitution which was the bond of com- 



524 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

" pact and union between Alabama and the other States 
." of the Union. We propose to do as the IsraeHtes did 
" of old, under Divine direction to withdraw our people 
" from under the power that oppresses them, and,, in 
" doing so, like them, to take with us the Ark of the 
"Covenant of our liberties. 

" There is biit one more point upon which I desire to 
" say a few words. My venerable friend from Lauder- 
" dale asked us to forbear pressing the minority to 
" sign the ordinance. In my opinion it is not a neces- 
" sity that it be signed by members. Its signature 
" does not necessarily express approval of the act. 
" Signing it is but an act of attestation, in one sense, as 
" when the President of the Senate signs an act of the 
" General Assembly which he has voted against. I am 
" willing to vote for all reasonable delay to enable 
" members to consult their constituents. But I beseech 
" gentlemen to bear in mind that when the ordinance is 
" signed, the absence of the signature of any members 
" will be a notice to our enemies that we are divided as 
" a people, and that there are those in our midst who 
" will not support the State in its hour of peril. The 
" signature of the ordinance, while waiving no vote 
" given against it, while giving up no opinion, is an 
" evidence of the highest character that the signer will 
" support his country. 

" It will give dignity, strength, unity to the State in 
" which we live, and by which each of its citizens should 
" be willing to die if its exigencies demand it. I now 
" ask that the vote may be taken." 

The question being upon the adoption of the ordi- 
nance, the vote was taken by ayes and noes, and 
resulted — ayes 61, noes 39. Seven of the minority 
party had gone over to the majority under the lead of 
Mr. Clemens. Mr. President Brooks announced the 
result of the vote, and declared that Alabama was a 
free, sovereign, and independent State. The obliga- 



THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 525 

tion of secrecy was removed at once from the proceed- 
ings of the Convention and the doors thrown open. 

The vast multitude which had assembled in and" 
about the Capitol, thronging the corridors and vestibule 
in anxious expectation of the news, as soon as the doors 
were opened, burst into the lobbies in a fever of excite- 
ment and enthusiasm. The Senate Chamber, within 
hearing of the Convention Hall, had been thronged with 
citizens from an early hour, who had listened to 
speeches from distinguished men, and whose rapturous 
applause had constantly reached the ears of the Con- 
vention. Now the rush to the lobbies, to the galleries, 
and to the floor of the Convention Chamber, resembled 
the rush of a mountain torrent. In an instant salvos 
of artillery heralded the event, and banners were dis- 
played in all parts of the little city. As if by magic, 
an immense flag of Alabama was thrown across the 
hall, and was greeted with cheer upon cheer until the 
rafters fairly rang with the applause. Mr. Yancey pre- 
sented the flag in the name of the ladies of Alabama, 
and paid a splendid tribute to the ardor of female pat- 
riotism. It was accepted by Mr. Alpheds Baker in 
one of those glowing speeches for which he was so 
famous, in which the word-painting was so brilliant and 
electric as to carry captive every heart. 

Throughout the day the roar of peaceful guns con- 
tinued ; more flags leaped every moment to the wind, 
until the air was heavy with the vast expanse of gor- 
geous bunting. Speeches of congratulation were being 
made by eloquent orators to the wild populace ; and 
everywhere was seen an enthusiasm such as perhaps 
never before in the annals of the world greeted the 
birth of a new government. 

On the 1 6th of January the report of the special 
committee of thirteen upon the formation of a provis- 
ional and permanent government between the seceding 
States, was taken up by the Convention on motion of 
Mr. Yancey. The report favored the formation of con- 



526 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

federate relations with such of the Southern States as 
might desire it, upon the basis of the Constitution of 
the United States. It advised the election of delegates 
to the Provisional Congress called to meet at Mont- 
gomery, Feb. 4. The opponents of secession took the 
ground that a new Convention should be called to pass 
upon the formation of a permanent government. There 
still lingered a hope that while Alabama was untram- 
meled by a new alliance, she was in a better condition 
to renew at any moment her connection with the 
United States. Mr. Yancey said that " the proposition 
" has a tendency to reopen the question of secession, 
" by bringing up the issue of a reconstruction of the 
'*^ Federal Government ; it allows such an issue to be 
" made ; it invites it, in fact." Said he : "From the 
" signs of the times it would seem that coercive mea- 
" sures were to be adopted. If so, about the time of 
" such an election the people will be bearing the 
" burthens of such a contest. Commercial and agricul- 
" tural interests will be suffering. Debts will be hard 
" to pay. Provisions will be scarce. Perhaps death 
" at the hands of the enemy will have come to the 
"■ doors of many families. Men's minds thus sur- 
" rounded and affected by strong personal and selfish 
" considerations, will not be in that calm and well-bal- 
" anced condition which is favorable to a correct and 
" patriotic judgment of the question. The very state 
' ' of things will perhaps exist which our Black Repub- 
" lican enemies predict will exist, and which they sneer- 
" ingly rely upon to force our people to ask for re-ad- 
" mission into the Union." 

These remarks of Mr. Yancey show conclusively that 
he believed it to be the purpose of the advocates of a 
new Convention to gain time and thus to enable the 
State to seize the first opportunity to return to the 
Union, A motion that the plan for a Confederate 
States Constitution should be submitted for ratification 
or rejection to a new Convention to be elected by the 



THE CEADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 527 

people, was laid upon the table by a vote of 49 in favor 
of laying it upon the table, and 39 opposed to tabling. 

The Convention adjourned until March 4th. Before 
dispersing, the President, Mr. Brooks, said : "We are 
" free, and shall any of us cherish any idea of a recon- 
" struction of the old government, whereby Alabama 
" will again link her rights, her fortunes and her destiny 
" in a Union with the Northern States ? If any of 
" you hold to such a fatal opinion, let me entreat you, 
" as you value the blessings of equality and freedom, 
'' dismiss it at once. There is not, cannot be, any secu- 
" lity or peace for us in a reconstructed government of 
" the old material. I must believe that there is not a 
*• friend or advocate of reconstruction in this large body. 
" '!'he people of Alabama are now independent ; sink 
" or swim, live or die, they will continue fi'ee, sovereign 
" and independent. Dismiss the idea of a reconstruc- 
"' tion of the old Union now and forever." 

On the 12th of March the permanent Constitution 
for the Confederate States was submitted to the Ala- 
bama Convention. Mr. Jemison, of Tuskaloosa, advo- 
cated its submission to a direct vote of the people. He 
said that there was great dissatisfaction in some sec- 
tions of the State because the ordinance of secession 
had not been so submitted. It would be impossible 
now to plead want of time or necessity for hasty action. 
Mr. Morgan, of Dallas, opposed submission of the in- 
strument to the people. He said : 

" The people would never ratify by a direct vote. 
" This doctrine of a direct vote of the people on ratifi- 
" cation was absurd and odious. A reference would 
" give rise to many distracting questions. The African 
" slave trade would be brought in ; the question of Re- 
" construction, with all its agitating features, would be 
" brought in, and many other questions of sufficient 
" abstract merit to excite the people and arouse opposi- 
'' tion, but of no useftil importance. Our fathers never 



528 THE CRADLE OF THE CONFEDERACY. 

^^ would have ratified the old Constitution by a^ direct 
"vote." 

It was argued by the friends of submission that the 
existing Convention, having adopted the ordinance of 
secession, was fundus officio ; that the formation of a 
new government by Alabama with certain States, was 
new matter demanding a new voice from the people. It 
was said that the proposed Constitution had been 
framed by deputies elected by the Convention and not 
by the people, and that the people had nothing to say 
as to the ordinance of secession, the election of a Pro- 
visional Government, or the formation of a permanent 
Constitution. Now they were to be deprived of an 
opportunity of voting upon the kind of 2;overnment 
under which they were to live. Mr. Smith, of Tuska- 
loosa, said : " They find themselves under a new gov- 
" ernment, and in amazement exclaim, who did this ? 
" They find themselves in the hands of a new Congress, 
*' and exclaim — who elected this new Congress ? Who 
" authorized it ? The answer is, ' We are the People.' 
" Sir, that ' we are the people ' in any but a 
" representative sense, is absurd. It is the flimsy 
" excuse for usurpations ; it has been the characteris- 
" tic of legislative tyrannies in all ages of the world, 
" from the Areopagus to Cromwell's Parliament." 

Mr. Jemison's proposed amendment to the commit- 
tee's report, providing for the meeting of a new Con- 
vention to pass upon the Constitution, was finally voted 
down by — ayes 36, noes 53. 

The Confederate States Constitution was then ratified 
by the Alabama Convention, only five votes being cast 
against it. 

On Tuesday, March 12, a resolution was unani- 
mously adopted by the Convention approving the 
election of Jefferson Davis President, and Alexander 
H. Stephens Vice-President, of the Provisional Govern- 
ment of the Confederate States of America. 



